Molecular Biology

Molecular Biology: Elementary Processes of Nerve Conduction and Muscle Contraction focuses on the underlying elementary processes of muscular contraction and nerve impulse conduction. This book explores the fundamental concepts and notions in molecular biology.
Organized into 11 chapters, this book starts with an overview of the double array model of striated muscle. This text then discusses the structural changes at the molecular level, which occur as a consequence or an accompaniment of the chemical reactions that occur during contraction. Other chapters explain the process by which molecular changes are summated to produce macroscopic shortenings. This book discusses as well the molecular complementarity and chemistry of acetylcholinesterase, which provides significant information for the understanding of nervous activity. The final chapter deals with the structure of guanidinium ion, which consists of three equivalent NH2 groups arranged with a planar trigonal symmetry around the central carbon atom.
Physicists, chemists, and biologists will find this book useful.

Contenu

Participants in the Symposium on Molecular Biology
Introductory Remarks
The Aims of the Symposium
Chapter 1. The Structure of Striated Muscle
Chapter 2. The Heat Production of Muscle
Chapter 3. Chemical Reactions during Contraction and Relaxation
Chapter 4. Attempts toward a Formulation of Biological Use of Energy in Terms of Chemical Potentials
Chapter 5. Some Considerations of Structure and Function in Proteins
Chapter 6. Nature and Function of Mucopolysaccharides of Connective Tissue
Chapter 7. The Physical Chemistry of Nerve Action
Chapter 8. The Molecular Biology of Cell Membranes
Chapter 9. The Heat Production of Nerve
Chapter 10. Aspects of the Molecular Basis of Nervous Activity
Chapter 11. Physiological Effects of Sodium and Guanidinium Ions in the Light of Their Electronic Structure