Biosyntheses

The present work emphasises the importance of microbial physiology, biochemistry, genetics and evolu­tion in the study of biosynthesis. It takes into account the considerable advances made in the field in the last twenty years by the introduction of gene cloning and sequencing and by the exponential development of physical methods such as X-ray crystallography of proteins.

After dealing with the kinetics of bacterial growth and the most recent developments in the mechanisms of cellular permeability, a chapter treats the phenomenon of allostery, indispensable for the understanding of many phenomena described in the rest of the book.