In Escherichia coli strain GR84N[pNG10], the cloned gene for subunit I of the membrane-bound cytochrome d complex resulted in the overproduction of cytochrome b558 and facilitated purification of this cytochrome. Extracting membranes with 1% Triton X-100 followed by two chromatographic steps yielded a single band on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels corresponding to subunit I (Mr 57 000). Purified cytochrome b558 was in its native state as determined by difference absorption spectroscopy and by potentiometric analysis. Both the membranes of strain GR84N[pNG10] and the purified subunit I lacked the other two spectroscopically defined cytochromes, b595 (previously "a1") and d, of the cytochrome d complex. Reconstitution of cytochrome b558 in phospholipid vesicles demonstrated that cytochrome b558 can be reduced by ubiquinol but that it does not reduce molecular oxygen. Heme extraction of cytochrome b558 yielded an extinction coefficient of 22 000 M-1 cm-1 for the wavelength pair of 560 and 580 nm in the reduced-minus-oxidized spectrum. The mutation on pNG10 that eliminates subunit II was mapped to a 250 base pair DNA fragment.

Working the Waterfront: The Ups and Downs of a Rebel Longshoreman Gilbert Mers "Somebody said, 'History is written by the winners. The losers have nothing to say.' This book is by one of the losers, a bit player, not the star of the drama." So begins Gilbert Mers in these personal recollections of forty-two years on the Texas waterfront as longshoreman and radical union activist. But far from having "nothing to say," Mers reveals himself as a thoughtful philosopher of democratic ideals and eloquent agitator for union reform. He challenges the conventional wisdom that the leader is more valuable than the led. He contends that long tenure in positions of power dulls the union officer's working-class instincts. Always one to row against the current, Mers believes the union exists for the benefit of its members! This is primary material of the best kind, vivid and evocative, and Mers, in his eighties at the time of writing the book, is an unusually vigorous and articulate spokesman for a democratic and humane unionism.

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