The Physical Chemistry of Membranes

aside that his laboratory had not succeeded in growing their strain of CHO cells in serum-free media neither has mine! The following chapters are also descriptions of ‘how to’, and include descriptions of cell fusion and chromosome sorting, DNA-mediated gene transfer, vector-mediated gene transfer and cloning and expression of cDNAs. These chapters were really a series of (mainly) brief overviews, and I was left unconvinced that such descriptions were really necessary. In particular, these chapters undermined the thesis that the CHO cell is so important since many of the developments described have been largely achieved by using mouse cells! The third, and by far the longest, section is devoted to the genetic systems developed in Chinese hamster cells lines, and is itself further subdivided into sections on intermediary metabolism, cell structure and behaviour, and mechanisms of genetic variations. Intermediary metabolism in this context appears to be synonymous with nucleotide metabolism, since this topic takes the lion’s share with minor coverage of amino acid, protein and mitchondrial metabolism. It is surprising that carbohydrate and lipid metabolism are not addressed at all. This may be of no consequence to the somatic cell geneticist but is it certainly of consequence to the biochemist and particularly the student of biochemistry. The next major subdivision, entitled ‘Cell Structure and Behaviour’, demonstrates how Chinese hamster mutants have been useful in providing material for a variety of studies loosely linked by being supramolecular. For the most part these studies are mainly descriptive, reflecting the fact that, while appropriate mutants have been isolated and biochemically characterized, in most instances the analysis has raised more questions than those it has answered. The final section, ‘Mechanism of Genetic Variation’, gives a succinct overview of the potentiaf use of Chinese hamster mutants for dissecting the mechanisms of genetic variation in somatic cells. I agree with the authors, that “somatic cell geneticists are only now developing the tools and systems required to investigate mechanisms of genetic variation in detail”. This is the book’s main strength and perhaps it’s greatest weakness: there is still more promise from the Chinese hamster cell system than performance. In conclusion, it is useful reading for a biochemist, but not essential. The CHO cell line may well be the somatic cell geneticists’ E. coli, but it is the E. coli of the 1960s rather than the 1980s, albeit with outstanding promise for the 1990s. The authors’ were clearly aware of one anothers’ contributions and I congratulate Michael Gottesman on his achievement. At 10 pence a page it is an expensive investment which I imagine only the most resolute somatic cell geneticist would make. For biochemists wishing to keep abreast of somatic cell genetics there are more modest investments available: dip into this volume in your library.