In this book, the progress during the last ten years is reviewed and future plans outlined to realize and establish the concept of design in the biological sciences. Design is a leading concept as well as the principal motivation for the creation of artificial systems. A successful design generally requires that the structures and functions of the elements that constitute the system as well as the principles that determine how the elements cooperate together to create function be fully understood. These requirements have not been satisfied within the fields of biotechnology and medicine. Compared to the recent emergence of artificial systems, living organisms acquired their present day structures and functions through evolution over three to four billion years. Despite the fact that the design of living organisms is recorded in the DNA sequence, our understanding of the structures and functions of the elements that constitute living organisms is very limited. To fulfill the requirements, the following approaches were initiated under a ten-year project entitled "Biodesign Research". Firstly, we tried to isolate and characterize the functional elements that constitute the organelles of various organisms. Secondly, we tried to reconstitute systems that reproduce biological functions in vitro from individual elements in order to understand how the elements cooperate together to yield a function. Thirdly, we attempted to resolve biological structures at various resolutions ranging from the atomic to the cellular level to further our knowledge about the fundamental principles that various functions at the molecular level and to design artificial systems.
Author(s): I. Endo, T. Kudo, H. Osada, T. Shibata and I. Yamaguchi (Eds.)
Series: Progress in Biotechnology 22
Edition: 1
Publisher: Elsevier, Academic Press
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 3-231
Content:
Preface
Pages v-vi
Isao Endo, Isamu Yamaguchi, Toshiaki Kudo, Hiroyuki Osada, Takehiko Shibata
Stress meets development in p38 MAP kinase Original Research Article
Pages 3-11
Tatsuhiko Sudo, Masumi Maruyama, Hiroyuki Osada
Molecular dissection of cytotoxic functions mediated by T cells Original Research Article
Pages 13-23
Takao Kataoka, Kazuo Nagai
Molecular imaging of the cytoskeleton using GFP-actin fluorescence microscopy Original Research Article
Pages 25-34
Yuling Yan, Gerard Marriott
Golgi-acting drugs: inducers and inhibitors of Golgi dispersal as probes to analyze Golgi membrane dynamics Original Research Article
Pages 35-44
Takatsuki Akira
Regulation of protein sorting and trafficking between the endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi apparatus in yeast Original Research Article
Pages 45-54
Akihiko Nakano
An unexpected gift from fungicide metabolism studies: blasticidin S deaminase (BSD) from Aspergillus terreus Original Research Article
Pages 55-60
Makoto Kimura, Masaki Yamamoto, Makio Furuichi, Takashi Kumasaka, Isamu Yamaguchi
Isolation and analysis of genes from phytopathogenic fungi Original Research Article
Pages 61-74
Takayuki Motoyama, Tsutomu Arie, Takashi Kamakura, Isamu Yamaguchi
A novel type of Na/H antiporter: its unique characteristics and function Original Research Article
Pages 75-84
Saori Kosono, Makio Kitada, Toshiaki Kudo
Genetic analysis of the genes involved in mitosis in fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe Original Research Article
Pages 87-103
Yukinobu Nakaseko, Mitsuhiro Yanagida
Intergenomic transcriptional interplays between plastid as a cyanobacterial symbiont and nucleus Original Research Article
Pages 105-120
Hideo Takahashi, Kan Tanaka
From viral RNA genome to infectious ribonucleoprotein complexes through RNA replication Original Research Article
Pages 121-139
Kyosuke Nagata
Mechanisms of regulation of eukaryotic homologous DNA recombination Original Research Article
Pages 141-155
Takehiko Shibata, Ken-ichi Mizuno, Kunihiro Ohta
Studies on photoreactive enzyme-nitrile hydratase Original Research Article
Pages 159-168
Isao Endo, Masafumi Odaka
Structural and functional analyses of proteins involved in translation, DNA recombination, chromosome architecture, and signal transduction Original Research Article
Pages 169-180
Hitoshi Kurumizaka, Shigeyuki Yokoyama
The importance of the hydrophobic pocket in actin subdomain 4 for Ca2+-activation of actin-activated myosin ATPase in the presence of Tropomyosin-Troponin Original Research Article
Pages 181-187
Takeyuki Wakabayashi, Takuo Yasunaga, Kimiko Saeki, Yoshiyuki Matsuura
Physiological functions and molecular structures of new types of hemoproteins Original Research Article
Pages 189-204
Yoshitsugu Shiro, Yasuhiro Isogai, Hiro Nakamura, Tetsutaro Iizuka
Unity and diversity in biological oxidation Original Research Article
Pages 205-219
Johannis A. Duine
Index of authors
Page 221
Index of key words
Pages 223-231
