Biochemistry

Citation

Berg, J. M., Tymoczko, J. L., Gatto, G. J., & Stryer, L. (2019). Biochemistry (9th ed.). W. H. Freeman and Company.

Chapter Summary

This is the ninth edition of the textbook that began as Lubert Stryer's Biochemistry, published by W. H. Freeman (Macmillan Learning) in 2019. It is a long, single-volume text of more than a thousand pages. The publisher describes this edition as remaining true to the integrity of the original Stryer text, with exceptionally clear writing, innovative graphics, coverage of the latest research techniques and advances, and a signature emphasis on physiological and medical relevance. It is supported by the Achieve online platform, which the publisher says includes an interactive eBook, assessments and an interactive Metabolic Map.

The book is divided into parts, the first of which is titled The Molecular Design of Life. The summary below follows the main topic areas of the subject as the book and its publisher present them, and it does not attribute content to specific chapters.

The Molecular Design of Life: Proteins, Enzymes and Nucleic Acids

The opening part of the book introduces biochemistry as an evolving science and builds the picture of the molecules of life. The areas covered are the composition and structure of proteins, how proteins bind other molecules, the methods used to study them, and enzymes: their kinetics, their catalytic strategies and their regulation. The same part treats DNA and RNA and the flow of genetic information, together with the methods for exploring nucleic acids, evolution and bioinformatics.

Membranes, Transport and Signaling

A second area is the biochemistry of biological membranes. It includes the lipids and carbohydrates that build them, the channels and pumps that move molecules and ions across them, and the signal-transduction pathways by which cells respond to their environment. This is the topic area that links protein chemistry with cell physiology.

Metabolism

The largest area in a text of this kind is metabolism: the basic concepts and themes of metabolic pathways, the breakdown of fuels and the generation of cellular energy, photosynthesis, and the biosynthesis of the building blocks of cells. The publisher's emphasis on physiological and medical relevance bears on this area, together with the Metabolic Map supplied with the Achieve platform.

Gene Expression and Its Regulation

The final major area concerns the information pathways of the cell: how DNA is replicated and repaired, how RNA is made and processed, how proteins are synthesized, and how gene expression is controlled. The book's description of its subject, covering protein structure and function, metabolism, gene expression and regulation, places this alongside the other areas as one of the main parts of the text.

Key Concepts

Protein Structure, Function and Enzymes

• Protein structure and function: how amino acid sequence leads to three-dimensional structure and how structure supports binding and activity.
• Enzyme catalysis: how enzymes speed reactions, how their kinetics are described, and how their activity is regulated.

Membranes and Signaling

• Membrane biology: the lipid bilayer and the proteins that carry molecules across it.
• Signal transduction: the pathways that carry signals from outside the cell to its interior.

Metabolism and Information

• Metabolism: the networks of reactions that release and use energy and build cellular components.
• Gene expression: the flow of information from DNA through RNA to protein, and its regulation.
• Molecular evolution: the use of sequence comparison and bioinformatics to understand how molecules have changed.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• The text has a long history under the Stryer name and is described by its publisher as keeping the character of the original: clear writing, strong graphics and attention to physiological and medical relevance.
• Its coverage is broad enough to serve as the main reference for a full biochemistry sequence, from protein structure through metabolism to gene expression.
• The online resources with the ninth edition, an interactive eBook, assessments and an interactive Metabolic Map, support self-study and revision of the pathway material.
• A shorter one-semester text, Biochemistry: A Short Course, comes from the same lineage, so students can move between the two with a similar approach.

Limitations

• At well over a thousand pages, the book is more than a single semester can cover; readers must select.
• The ninth edition has since been replaced by a tenth, with a different list of chapters, so readers should make sure they match chapter references to the edition they hold.
• Its scale and breadth make it a reference-size textbook, not a gentle introduction; readers new to the subject are better served by a shorter text first.

Where It Fits in the Course

Among the biochemistry books on the site, Berg and colleagues is the comprehensive main text. Biochemistry: A Short Course is the one-semester condensation of the same lineage. Appling, Anthony-Cahill and Mathews's Biochemistry: Concepts and Connections approaches the subject from a chemical perspective, with quantitative problems on physical and chemical principles. Lorch's Biochemistry: A Very Short Introduction and Goodsell's The Machinery of Life are for readers new to the subject, with Goodsell's illustrated at the scale of molecules in the cell. McMurry and Begley's The Organic Chemistry of Biological Pathways explains metabolism through reaction mechanisms and pairs well with Berg's account of pathways. Use Lorch or Goodsell first for orientation, Berg as the main text, and McMurry and Begley for mechanisms.

How to Use This Book

The book is for undergraduate students of biochemistry, biology, chemistry and health sciences who have completed general chemistry and have some organic chemistry and biology. It is a comprehensive text for a full course sequence and an ongoing reference for later study.

Plan reading by area. Begin with protein structure and enzymes, which supply the language for everything after. Then follow either metabolism or gene expression, depending on the course, and consult the membrane and signaling material where the course covers it. Use the Achieve resources, including the Metabolic Map, for the pathway material, and practice problems where the course provides them. For a single-semester course, select the areas that the syllabus names rather than reading the whole text. Match chapter numbers to the ninth edition, and check any assigned page or chapter numbers against the edition you own.