Laboratory techniques in biochemistry and molecular biology volume 4: Part 1. Chemical modification of proteins part II. Separation methods for nucleic acids and oligonucleotides

tures have greatly expanded. In immobilized enzyme systems, owing to the possibility of coupling chemical reactions to transport (diffusion) processes, highly organized spatio-temporal structures may occur. Hardt et al. present their theoretical analysis on a membrane-containing immobilized papain and they also show the possibility of signal propagation in the plane of the membrane. Kernevez develops a numerical analysis to solve the problems of optimal control or to identify unknown kinetic parameters in reactiondiffusion coupled processes. Lefever gives a stochastic model for the investigation of dissipative structures and proves that in the phosphofructokinase reaction dissipative structures may occur, which is a novel feature in the theory of glycolytic oscillations. Bunow and Colton claim, on the ground of a numerical analysis of a model system, that in the case of a pH sensitive, base or acid consuming or producing system, if mass transport limitations are imposed, multiple steady states may appear. In addition, there are articles about various themes, e.g., Monsan et al. deal with the mechanism of action of glutaraldehyde, Engasser and Horvath discuss the ‘buffer shuttle mechanism’, Gelff and Henry treat the performance of immobilized enzyme columns, etc. Last but not least there are very useful review articles in this book, e.g., the one written by Porath about bioafflnity and hydrophobic chromatography, or the survey by Broun about the current trends in the field covered by the meeting. Thomas presents an excellent review of the results obtained with artificial enzyme membranes, including fundamental kinetic modelling, the new properties due to the membrane shape (active transport, memory, oscillation, etc.) and a survey of the applications. Veronika Jancsik