Biochemistry: A Short Course

Citation

Hines, J. K., Reinke, C., & Tymoczko, J. L. (2025). Biochemistry: A Short Course (5th ed.). Macmillan Learning (W. H. Freeman).

Chapter Summary

The fifth edition runs to 992 pages in 41 chapters, or about 24 pages per chapter on average, so most chapters deal with a single topic; the publisher's table of contents lists no parts or sections beyond the chapter titles. The sequence moves from molecules (water, amino acids, proteins, enzymes, carbohydrates, lipids, membranes, signalling) through metabolism to the nucleic acids and gene expression.

Chapters 1–2: Biochemical Similarities Demonstrate the Unity of Life; Water, Weak Interactions, and the Generation of Order out of Chaos

The book opens with the common features of living things and then with water and the weak interactions that shape biomolecules.

Chapters 3–6: Amino Acids; Protein Three-Dimensional Structure; Protein Binding, Molecular Recognition, and Allostery; Techniques in Protein Biochemistry

A protein block of four chapters: amino acids, three-dimensional structure, binding and allostery, and the laboratory techniques used to study proteins.

Chapters 7–9: Basic Concepts of Enzyme Action; Kinetics and Regulation; Mechanisms and Inhibitors

Enzymes receive three chapters, separating basic catalytic concepts, kinetics and regulation, and mechanisms with inhibitors.

Chapters 10–13: Carbohydrates; Lipids; Membrane Structure and Function; Signal-Transduction Pathways

Carbohydrates and lipids as structural and functional molecules, then membranes and the signalling pathways that cross them.

Chapters 14–15: Digestion: Turning a Meal into Cellular Biochemicals; Metabolism: Basic Concepts and Themes

A bridge into metabolism that starts from digestion of food and states the general concepts and recurring themes of metabolic pathways.

Chapters 16–23: Glycolysis; Gluconeogenesis; Preparation for the Citric Acid Cycle; The Citric Acid Cycle; The Electron-Transport Chain; The Proton-Motive Force; Phototrophy and the Light Reactions of Photosynthesis; The Calvin–Benson Cycle

The central energy pathways and their photosynthetic counterparts are taken one pathway or step per chapter, with electron transport and the proton-motive force in separate chapters.

Chapters 24–32: Glycogen Degradation; Glycogen Synthesis; The Pentose Phosphate Pathway; Fatty Acid and Triacylglycerol Degradation; Fatty Acid Synthesis; Lipid Synthesis: Storage Lipids, Phospholipids, and Cholesterol; Protein Turnover and Amino Acid Catabolism; Amino Acid Synthesis; Nucleotide Metabolism

Degradation and synthesis are split into separate chapters for glycogen, fatty acids and amino acids, followed by the pentose phosphate pathway and nucleotide metabolism.

Chapters 33–41: The Structure of Nucleic Acids: DNA and RNA; DNA Replication; DNA Repair and Recombination; RNA Synthesis and Regulation in Bacteria; Gene Expression in Eukaryotes; RNA Processing in Eukaryotes; The Genetic Code; The Mechanism of Protein Synthesis; Recombinant DNA Techniques

The final block covers nucleic acid structure, replication and repair, transcription in bacteria and eukaryotes, RNA processing, the code and translation, and recombinant DNA methods.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–9: Molecules and Enzymes

• Weak interactions in water: the noncovalent forces named in Chapter 2's title.
• Allostery and molecular recognition: how protein binding is regulated.
• Enzyme kinetics, regulation and inhibition: the topics of Chapters 8 and 9.

Chapters 10–15: Membranes, Signalling and Metabolic Themes

• Membrane structure and function.
• Signal-transduction pathways.
• Metabolic themes: the shared concepts of Chapter 15.

Chapters 16–32: Pathways

• Glycolysis and gluconeogenesis.
• The citric acid cycle.
• Electron transport and the proton-motive force.
• The light reactions and the Calvin–Benson cycle.
• Pentose phosphate pathway, fatty acid and amino acid metabolism.

Chapters 33–41: Information

• DNA replication and repair.
• Transcription and RNA processing.
• The genetic code and protein synthesis.
• Recombinant DNA techniques.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• One idea per figure. The publisher says the figures and captions focus on single ideas, without distracting detail, to make complex concepts accessible.
• Built-in practice. The fifth edition adds Self-Check questions and Worked Examples, and "Skills You Need" activities that refresh foundational knowledge (also listed among its Achieve resources); the publisher says the end-of-chapter questions come with detailed feedback and solutions in its online system.
• Clinical and everyday connections. The publisher describes links to health, medicine and related fields, and a reviewer quoted on the page highlights the "Clinical Insight" sidebars and examples such as the microbiome, yogurt production and diabetes.
• A familiar lineage. The publisher's author biographies include Jeremy Berg, Gregory Gatto and Lubert Stryer alongside the three listed authors; John Tymoczko, whose biography says he taught until his death in 2019, is now listed after Justin Hines and Catherine Reinke.
• Many focused chapters. With pathways such as glycolysis and the citric acid cycle each in a chapter of their own, the book can be assigned in small pieces.

Limitations

• Length for a "short course". At 992 pages the book is not short in absolute terms, and the number of chapters means that a one-semester course must choose which to omit.
• Several study resources live in the online system. Autograded homework, interactive figures, animated technique videos and an interactive metabolic map are features of the Achieve package, not of the print book.
• Late nucleic acid chapters. The order places DNA structure at Chapter 33, so a course that wants genetic information earlier has to reorder.

Where It Fits in the Course

Within the biochemistry list, this is a single-volume undergraduate text aimed, per the publisher, at students heading for healthcare and pharmaceutical careers. The Berg et al. Biochemistry in this list is a comprehensive textbook by an overlapping author group; the Short Course is the one to consider for a health-science audience. Appling, Anthony-Cahill and Mathews's Biochemistry: Concepts and Connections is a text with 26 chapters whose preface stresses the quantitative basis of biochemistry; Pratt and Cornely's Essential Biochemistry is likewise a concise text for a one-semester first course. Mark Lorch's Biochemistry: A Very Short Introduction and David Goodsell's The Machinery of Life are lighter introductions to read first, while the Lehninger and Voet texts are full-length textbooks and Kuriyan, Konforti and Wemmer's The Molecules of Life approaches the subject through physical chemistry.

How to Use This Book

The publisher presents the book to undergraduates preparing for careers in healthcare and pharmaceuticals and does not state prerequisites on its page; the online "Skills You Need" activities are designed to refresh prerequisite concepts before upcoming chapters.

A practical plan: read Chapters 1–9 first, because proteins and enzymes are used everywhere later; read Chapters 14–15 before any pathway chapter; then move through the pathway chapters in the order given, treating Chapters 24–32 (glycogen, pentose phosphate, lipid, amino acid and nucleotide metabolism) as selectable. Read Chapters 33–41 last, or after Chapter 9 if the course puts molecular biology early. For each chapter, work the Self-Check questions as you read, then the end-of-chapter questions, and use the Skills You Need activities when a prerequisite idea is hazy.