Metals and Genetics

This book covers significant discoveries in the rapidly advancing field of metals and genetics. The aim of this volume is to bring together investigators from diverse fields of clinical medicine, genetics, biochemistry, and chemistry to reflect on the broad implications of direct and indirect interactions of metals and genetic components. The volume is divided into five sections. The first discusses genetic response to environmental exposure to metals. The section on metal carcinogenesis and metal caused DNA damage presents the latest advances in our knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of metal-induced mutagenis and carcinogenesis. A section is devoted to metals and neurodegenerative diseases. The identification of several disease genes related to metals is a major breakthrough in recent years. The section on genetics and biochemistry of metal-related diseases presents authoritative accounts of current information on both inherited and acquired metal-related diseases. They have discussed the genetics and pathophysiology of these diseases and reported the cloning, expression, purification, and characterization of gene products. Exciting results have been reported recently describing regulation of gene expression by metals. Chapters in this section on metals and gene regulation report recent advances dealing with the mechanism of metal-mediated regulation and control of gene expression.