Gene Expression and Its Regulation: Laying the Foundation for Molecular Biology

Werner Maas is Professor Emeritus of Microbiology at New York University School of Medicine. Since his student days in 1941 he has been involved in the development of the new science of molecular genetics. His main contributions have been in the discovery of regulatory genes that are essential for the proper functioning of all genes in the maintenance of living cells. In 1955 he discovered that the formation of the amino acid arginine was feedback-regulated by arginine in combination with the product of a regulatory gene. This single gene product controls the formation of the eight enzymes of arginine biosynthesis. The main part of this book deals with the analysis of the molecular mechanism of this regulation.