Structural Biology

In the present volume the attempt is made to deal from various aspects with the subject of structural biology. Chapter 1 focuses on the considerable progress that has been made in the understanding of biological membranes since the early 1960s. The principles involved and the problem of how molecules are organized in the plasma membrane are expounded. This is followed by a chapter on the cytoskeleton. It turns out that general agreement about the existence of a microtrabecular lattice in cells has not yet been achieved. Chapter 3 examines the view that intermediate filaments form a structural continuum in cells and that cytosolic and nuclear filaments have similar regulatory functions. The last chapter makes it quite clear that signal progress is being made in the understanding of the organization and functions of the extracellular matrix and that this represents a widely expanding subfield of cell biology.