Olejar Books

The chemistry of metals is providing new insights into DNA chemistry, making it necessary for scientists in this emerging interdisciplinary research area to be able to understand work in both fields. Metal complexes are now widely used to manipulate DNA, metalloproteins that regulate gene expression have been discovered, and metal-based drugs are important in the treatment of cancer. Metal-DNA Chemistry covers these three facets of what might be termed inorganic molecular biology". The 11 chapters provide recent research results as well as introductory material on the application of metal chemistry to molecular biology. The presentations are designed to be useful to both inorganic chemists and molecular biologists.
The DNA molecules and DNA-protein complexes that are the essence of molecular biology can be remarkably large and complex in structure, making traditional tools for structure determination difficult or impossible to apply. New "footprinting" techniques have harnessed the chemistry of transition metals to produce chemical pictures" of DNA and DNA-protein complexes. Three classes of metal-based DNA cleavage reagents-iron(II)EDTA, copper phenanthroline, and metalloporphyrins-are covered in the first part of the book. Both the application of these reagents to DNA systems and the underlying chemistry involved in binding and cleavage are discussed. An even more intimate connection between metal chemistry and molecular biology is embodied in gene regulatory proteins that contain metals. The structural motif called the "zinc finger" has been found in a large number of proteins that bind to DNA or RNA. Iron has been demonstrated to be involved in gene regulation of prokaryotes through its binding to the Fur (ferric uptake regulation) protein. Bacteria have developed an elaborate system for detoxifying mercury through the synthesis of several proteins that bind, transport, and reduce mercuric ion. The MerR protein, which binds mercury, regulates the synthesis of these proteins. These three metalloproteinbased gene regulatory systems are explored in a second section of the book. The chemistry of metal complexes that bind to the nucleotides of DNA is described in the final three chapters. Phosphorus-31 NMR methods for investigating the structure of Cisplatin-DNA adducts are described and applied to an unusual new platinum-DNA structure. The chemistry of a palladium organometallic compound with DNA is out lined. Finally, the structures and stabilities of the complexes of a wide range of metals with nucleotides are comprehensively surveyed. With its broad coverage, from the detailed spectroscopic study of a copper complex that cleaves DNA to the genetics of the regulation of iron uptake in bacteria, this volume will be a welcome addition to the libraries of molecular biologists, biochemists, and inorganic chemists.