Science & Molecular Biology

Concepts of Genetics 7th Edition

5 stars (I used this book for my lectures.) - OK, let me put it simply. I used this book to prepare for my lectures to 2nd year medical undergraduates- and I received outstanding feedback. The students just loved it! 4 stars (A descent book for beginners) - Before making any critics about this book I should stress upon the fact that the authors well deserve a four star rating for this most readable book, both for the writing style and for the contents. Almost everything written is clear, concise and well presented. The captions are of high quality and if you ever buy this book feel sure that you are not wasting your money! I am referring in particular to chapter 16: Genetics of Bacteria and Bacteriophages which in reality is quite tricky but here presented with simple words. You may not have to read it more than once for you will understand it right from the first lecture. For in-depth study though you might need something more advanced! However I did not really appreciate the way the fluctuation test of S.Luria and M.Delbruk was presented nor was the following work of J.Cairns and B.Hall in chapter 14: Gene mutation, DNA repair and Transposable elements. There seems to lack the true essence of it. Furthermore the existence of mutational hotspots is limited to a subsection only of chapter 14 and a few lines on the work of S.Benzer. Even B.Lewin in Genes VII gives a better treatment of mutational hotspots. Finally I would have expected a chapter on Mutations to talk about mutator mutations as possible ways to increase or decrease the spontaneous mutation rate but no such references were made. Despite these few things, if you love genetics or need an introductory course be sure that this book is meant for you! 5 stars (I was taught by the proffesor who wrote the book) - Yup, and the professor gave out many problems in addition to supplementary problems. The book was an easy read but in order to do well in this course you simply need a mind for genetics. ...
Prentice Hall :: Science & Molecular Biology :: Science&Mathematics :: Science :: Life Sciences - Evolution :: Life Sciences - Biology - Molecular Biology :: Life Sciences - Bio :: Concepts of Genetics (7th Edition)

Molecular Biology of the Gene- Fifth Edition

5 stars (Readable and Thorough, An Excellent Reference) - I am a layman with a serious interest in biology. I read science news, especially in Nature and Scientific American, and I often find that I don't have enough background to understand articles at the level at which I want to understand them. I bought this book hoping to get that background, and I wasn't disappointed. For example, once the human genome was sequenced, it appeared that there were far too few genes for an organism as complex as ourselves. But investigation shows that most genes occur in segments and that the messenger RNA must be cut and spliced before the protein can be formed. Often there are two or more ways the RNA may be spliced. So that one gene can specify more than one protein. Another problem is that the genome seemed to consist mostly of sections that don't code for proteins; these were called "junk". But it turns out that some RNA sequences have catalytic and regulatory roles, roles which used to be considered the bailiwick of proteins alone. Articles about topics such as these used to confuse me thoroughly, but after reading this book I find them much clearer. This book benefits from a great many illustrations and I recommend that you go through each one as you would a worked problem in a math text. Observe how the pieces fit together, how a particular group of atoms enhances or inhibits a reaction. The practice will help you to understand other things you will read later. I called this a "reference" for good reason: I assume that I will come across many future articles which will send me back to it to fill in some background. ...
Benjamin Cummings :: Science & Molecular Biology :: Science&Mathematics :: Science :: Molecular genetics :: Molecular Biology :: Life Sciences - Genetics & Genomics :: Life Sciences - :: Molecular Biology of the Gene- Fifth Edition