Book excerpt: Redox regulation, like phosphorylation, is a covalent regulatory system that controls many of the normal cellular functions of all living cells and organisms. In addition, it controls how cells respond to stress involving oxidants and free radicals, which underlie many degenerative diseases. This area is undergoing a transition from general knowledge to specific description of the components and mechanisms involved.This invaluable book provides a timely basic description of a field whose relevance to cell biology and degenerative diseases is of the utmost importance. It describes the state of the art, lays the foundations for understanding the reactions involved, and presents the prospects for future developments. It can serve as a basic text for any undergraduate or graduate course that deals with redox regulation, oxidative stress and free radicals under normal and pathological conditions in bacterial, plant and animal cells.