Derived from the best-selling classic text originated by Lubert Stryer and continued by John Tymoczko and Jeremy Berg, Biochemistry: A Short Course focuses on the major topics taught in a one-semester biochemistry course. With its short chapters and relevant biological and clinical examples, this text shows biochemistry as a part of students’ everyday lives.

Offering the same signature writing style and physiological emphasis as the full-length text, this briefer book focuses on the major topics by eliminating details of enzyme mechanisms and organic chemistry, and by removing extraneous and advanced topics. Coverage is broken into short chapters for ease of use.

Numerous examples and photos of biochemistry in action show students that biochemistry is part of everything they do and experience. Students learn a biochemical concept, then see how that concept is applied in the real world. Clinical Insights show how our understanding of biochemical concepts influences an aspect of a disease or its cure, and Biological Insights show how simple changes in biochemical processes can have dramatic effects.

The Second Edition has been fully updated with coverage of recent developments in biochemistry and human health. New Metabolism in Context sections show how new information on the role of leptins in hunger and satiety has changed the way biochemists think about obesity and diabetes. In addition to diet and obesity, other Metabolism in Context features focus on metabolism and cancer, and metabolism and exercise.

The Experimental Techniques chapters (available on the companion website) have also been updated and expanded, exploring important techniques used by biochemists in the past as well as new technologies with which biochemists make discoveries in present-day laboratories.

PART I: THE MOLECULAR DESIGN OF LIFE
Biochemistry Helps Us Understand Our World
Biochemistry and the Unity of Life
Water, Weak Bonds, and the Generation of Order Out of Chaos
Protein Composition and Structure
Amino Acids
Protein Three-Dimensional Structure
Basic Concepts and Kinetics of Enzymes
Basic Concepts of Enzyme Action
Kinetics and Regulation
Mechanisms and Inhibitors
Hemoglobin, an Allosteric Protein
Carbohydrates and Lipids
Carbohydrates
Lipids
Cell Membranes, Channels, Pumps, and Receptors
Membrane Structure and Function
Signal-Transduction Pathways

PART II: TRANSDUCING AND STORING ENERGY
Basic Concepts and Design of Metabolism
Digestion: Turning a Meal into Cellular Biochemicals
Metabolism: Basic Concepts and Design
Glycolysis and Gluconeogenesis
Glycolysis
Gluconeogenesis
The Citric Acid Cycle
Preparation for the Cycle
Harvesting Electrons from the Cycle
Oxidative Phosphorylation
The Electron-Transport Chain
The Proton-Motive Force
The Light Reactions of Photosynthesis and the Calvin Cycle
The Light Reactions
The Calvin Cycle
Glycogen Metabolism and the Pentose Phosphate Pathway
Glycogen Degradation
Glycogen Synthesis
The Pentose Phosphate Pathway
Fatty Acid and Lipid Metabolism
Fatty Acid Degradation
Fatty Acid Synthesis
Lipid Synthesis: Storage Lipids, Phospholipids, and Cholesterol
The Metabolism of Nitrogen-Containing Molecules
Amino Acid Synthesis
Nucleotide Metabolism
Amino Acid Degradation and the Urea Cycle

PART III: SYNTHESIZING THE MOLECULES OF LIFE
Nucleic Acid Structure and DNA Replication
The Structure of Informational Macromolecules: DNA and RNA
DNA Replication
DNA Repair and Recombination
RNA Synthesis, Processing, and Regulation
RNA Synthesis and Regulation in Prokaryotes
Gene Expression in Eukaryotes
RNA Processing in Eukaryotes
Protein Synthesis
The Genetic Code
The Mechanism of Protein Synthesis

PART IV: EXPERIMENTAL BIOCHEMISTRY (available online on the Companion Website)
Techniques in Protein Biochemistry
Immunological and Recombinant DNA Techniques