Chemistry and Enzymology of Nucleic Acids

Jencks WP (1969) Catalysis in chemistry and enzymology. McGraw Hill, New York Saenger W (1984) Principles of nucleic acid stmcture. Springer, New York... 

This chapter lists some representative examples of biochemicals and their origins, a brief indication of key techniques used in their purification, and literature references where further details may be found. Simpler low molecular weight compounds, particularly those that may have been prepared by chemical syntheses, e.g. acetic acid, glycine, will be found in Chapter 4. Only a small number of enzymes and proteins are included because of space limitations. The purification of some of the ones that have been included has been described only briefly. The reader is referred to comprehensive texts such as the Methods Enzymol (Academic Press) series which currently runs to more than 344 volumes and The Enzymes (3rd Edn, Academic Press) which runs to 22 volumes for methods of preparation and purification of proteins and enzymes. Leading referenees on proteins will be found in Advances in Protein Chemistry (59 volumes. Academic Press) and on enzymes will be found in Advances in Enzymology (72 volumes, then became Advances in Enzymology and Related Area of Molecular Biology, J Wiley Sons). The Annual Review of Biochemistry (Annual Review Inc. Patio Alto California) also is an excellent source of key references to the up-to-date information on known and new natural compounds, from small molecules, e.g. enzyme cofactors to proteins and nucleic acids. 

It should be noted that many polar substances with poor solubilities in the usual solvents can be dissolved in water or in D2O. Examples of the potential use of aqueous solutions in pharmaceutical research are to be found in the discussions of aqueous solutions (thap. 3), enzymology (Chap. 15), hydrogen-deuterium exchange (Chap. 11), nucleic acids (Chap. 12), carbohydrates (Chap. 6), amino acids (Chap. 9), amines (Chap. 8), clinical chemistry (Chap. 18), and inorganic ions (Chap. 19). 

Detailed descriptions of these modem separation procedures are to be found in the first volume of the standard work on nucleic acid chemistry, edited by Chabgaff and Davidson [9] in Vol. XII of the series Methods in Enzymology [13] and in a number of review articles [12, 85, see also 16]. 

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