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In March 1996 the Society of Experimental Biology (UK) together with two other international scientific societies, the Australian and New Zealand Society for Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry and the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (formally the American Society for Zoology) joined forces with Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg to produce one of the first fully electronic online, peer-reviewed biological journals, Experimental Biology Online. The present product represents the fruits of this joint venture and encapsulates Volumes 1 and 2 of the journal. This will be an ongoing series such that an archival version of the journal will be available to all libraries as well as the on-line version. At the outset this was'new land'for all concerned but the launching of a journal which would cover experimental biology in terms of Animal, Cell and Plant topics was daunting but we all felt that the use of electronic media and the internet would be ideally suited to this purpose.

Profound mortality rates, due to cardiovascular disease, are a worldwide problem. Cardiovascular disease results from complications of a silent and chronic arterial disease: atherosclerosis. The challenge for the practitioner is adapting diagnostic and therapeutic responses to prevent this common and complex disease. Dyslipidemia, are disorders of the metabolism of soluble transporters of lipids in extracellular spaces of the human body (including blood), called lipoproteins. They are major cardiovascular risk factors, causally related with atherosclerosis and are themselves multifactorial diseases, resulting from interactions between genetic and environmental factors. The study of genetic factors has recently taken a new path with the study of DNA as an experimental object. More than fifty genes of lipoprotein metabolism have been identified in both their physiological actions and their contribution to the pathogenesis of human dyslipidemia. The diversity of observations has refined our current knowledge of the control of lipid metabolism and energy homeostasis in living organisms beyond the limits of the cardiovascular system (e.g., brain, immune system, and development). These studies have given way to a shake-up of former phenotypic classifications, distinguishing new entities, defining targeted therapeutic strategies, providing a basis for different patterns of disease distribution in human populations.

Interest in chemical entities capable of blocking or modifying cell metabolism ultimately goes back to the discovery of the structure of DNA in the 1950s. Understanding of the biochemical processes involved in cell metabolism rapidly led to the idea that compounds could be designed which might interfere with these processes, and thus could be used in the treatment of the diseases caused by viral infection. Since then, several classes of drugs have been discovered which depend for their effect on modification of the proper functioning of nucleic acids and, with the introduction of acyclovir for the treatment of Herpes infections, nucleoside analogues have become the cornerstone of antiviral chemotherapy. The success of the early nucleoside agents, the toxicity and metabolic instability of many nucleoside analogues, and the effects of viral pathogens on public health are driving the design, synthesis and evaluation of new nucleoside analogues, with much attention turning to nucleosides containing `non natural'sugar analogues. This book focuses on the development of these agents, and draws together all the available material in an easily consulted form, which at the same time guides the reader into the research literature on the subject. Written primarily for the medicinal chemist, coverage includes both synthetic strategies and outline guidance on the main trends in biological activity. Particular attention is drawn to the comparison of synthetic routes to compounds with their natural analogues. Finally, the important antiviral activities of the compounds are treated, including anti-retrovirus, anti-hepadnavirus and anti-herpes virus properties. Written mainly for medicinal chemists in the pharmaceutical industry and synthetic organic chemists in academe, this book will also be attractive to researchers in institutions focusing on cellular metabolism. Advanced students of organic chemistry will find the clear discussion of the synthetic strategies adopted in the development of these compounds a useful introduction to this exciting and challenging area.

Transposable elements are short lengths of DNA with the capacity to move between different points within a genome. This process can affect the function of genes at or near the insertion site. The present book gives an overview of the impact of transposable elements on plant genomes and explains how to recognize and study transposable elements, e.g. by using state-of-the-art strategies like “new generation sequencing.” Moreover, the impact of transposable elements on plant genome structure and function is reviewed in detail, and also illustrated in examples and case studies. The book is intended both for readers familiar with the field and for newcomers. With large-scale sequencing becoming increasingly available, more and more people will come across transposable element sequences in their data, and this volume will hopefully help to convince them that they are not just “junk DNA.”

Genome Exploitation: Data Mining the Genome is developed from the 23rd Stadler Genetic Symposium. This volume discusses and illustrates how scientists are going to characterize and make use of the massive amount of information being accumulated about the plant and animal genomes. Genome Exploitation: Data Mining the Genome is a state-of-the-art picture on mining the Genome databases. This is one of the few times that researchers in both plants and animals will be working together to create a seminal data resource.