Updated versions of 23 papers selected from a September 1989 symposium at Mount Tamborine, Australia, sponsored by national and international biochemical associations. Exploring how plants and animals from diverse habitats have adapted to toxins, the sections cover aquatic toxin producers, how venomous terrestrial organisms damage the cells of their targets, and how humans approach the investigation and control of natural and synthetic toxins. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
First Published in 1992. Toxins and Targets details the way in which organisms from diverse habitats in the plant and animal kingdoms have adapted to handle toxins safely. The development of a safe environment depends on increased knowledge and novel approaches to solving escalating problems.
First Published in 1992. The last decade of the twentieth century has seen an unprecedented advocacy for the preservation of a safe environment, and the prevention of ill-health from toxic chemicals. Human activity, however, is responsible for introducing new toxins into the environment. In order to control competitors for human food sources, an armament of pesticides has been assembled and their widespread and largely uncontrolled application has been permitted. It is only when the health of the population begins to suffer from the effects of these chemicals that the efficacy of their use is questioned. Decision-makers whose roles involve the promotion and control of the environment must look to lessons that can be learnt from biosystems that include animals other than man.
Toxins and Targets details the way in which organisms from diverse habitats in the plant and animal kingdoms have adapted to handle toxins safely. Part I, on the aquatic environment, highlights the means by which marine organisms have adapted their toxins to be effective in a world of high aqueous solubility and infinite dilution. Part II deals with venomous terrestrial organisms and the mechanisms by which they damage animal cells, and Part III considers the way in which human society attempts to investigate toxicity and to control both synthetic and naturally occurring poisons. The development of a safe environment depends on increased knowledge and novel approaches to solving escalating problems. This book is a step towards this end.
PARTIAQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
Chapter 1 Dlnoflagellate Toxins In Australian Shellfish
Chapter 2 Coneshell Venoms-Synthesis and Packaging
Chapter 3 Peptides In the Venom of the Geography Cone, Conus geographus
Chapter 4 Coneshell Toxin Genes
Chapter 5 Toxins from Sea-Squirts
Chapter 6 Poisoning by Blue-Green Algae
Chapter 7 Soft Corals and Their Toxins PART II DAMAGE TO ANIMAL CELLS
Chapter 8 lmmunotherapy for Cancer-Toxin-Antibody Conjugates
Chapter 9 A Tick Toxin
Chapter 10 A Cycad Neurotoxln
Chapter 11 Clguatera Poisoning
Chapter 12 Funnel-Web Spider Toxins
Chapter 13 Tetanus Toxin
Chapter 14 The Exotoxln of Melloldosls, a Disease of Animals and Man
Chapter 15 Two Naturally Occurring Toxins Causing Stock Losses
Chapter 16 A Jellyfish Toxin
Chapter 17 Snake Venom-Haemostatic Components
Chapter 18 A Toxic Protein from the AIDS Virus PART Ill POLLUTION, PEOPLE AND PREVENTION
Chapter 19 Toxicity Testing
Chapter 20 The Effects of Chloropropanes on Spermatozoa
Chapter 21 Blomonltorlng of DNA-Damaging Toxins
Chapter 22 Organochlorlnes-Pollutants and Human Carcinogens
Chapter 23 Ecotoxlcology
Dianne Watters, Martin Lavin both Queensland Cancer Fund Research Unit, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Australia. David Maguire Division of Defence and Technology, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. John Pearn Faculty of Medicine and Department of Child Health, University of Queensland, Royal Children's Hospital Brisbane, Australia.
