Book Reviews
HEPATOLOGY welcomes books for review and invites its readers both to identify books of hepatological interest and t o serve as book reviewers. Books of note should be called to the attention of the Book Editor, and potential reviewers should indicate their areas of interest. The Book Editor nonetheless reserves the right to select appropriate reviews for publication on these pages.
Molecular Biology of the Hepatitis B Virus.
Edited by A. McLachlan, 330 pp. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 1991. $179.95. Alan McLachlan of the Scripps Research Institute has written and edited a 16-chapter monograph designed to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date account of what is known about the molecular biology of HBV. The aim of this book is commendable; a monograph on this topic is needed. Although several excellent short review articles have been written on the molecular biology of HBV, and one or two good proceedings of symposia on this topic have been published, no single source of information provides a comprehensive overview and discussion of all features of the molecular virology of this important and unique viral agent. The attempt by Dr.
McLachlan and his colleagues to fill this need succeeds admirably.
The genome of HBV is a mere 3,200 nucleotides long, smaller than the average human gene. Nevertheless, this genome can encode seven different viral proteins (large, middle and small HBsAg; HBcAg; HBeAg; HBxAg; and a complex, multipurpose polymerase en-