Title: Genes IV
First published: 1990
Description: Genes quickly established itself as one of the foremost teaching resources in modern biology following its first publication in 1983. It has retained that position through two further editions (1985 and 1987). It was the first textbook to provide a unified view of the molecular biology ofprokaryotes (bacteria) and eukaryotes (higher organisms - animals and plants) but this integrated view has always been supported by descriptions of the approaches that the researchers are currently using, making it the most consistently up-to-date account of the rapid advances which have been madein this field during the 1980s. The purpose of this book is to give an account of what is known about the structure and function of genes in both eukaryotes and prokaryotes. The author provides a authoritative, consistent discussion of the complex biochemical and genetic answers to some crucial questions. What is a gene? How isit reproduced? How are its characteristics conceived or modified within individuals or over evolutionary time? How is it expressed? What controls expression? In effect it covers the ground that now constitutes the core of any modern course in genetics or biochemistry above the most elementarylevel. Annotation Published: March 2010.

This book is larger by about 100 pages and 4 chapters than the preceding edition, Genes III (1987); each page contains more print, so the increase in size is a further reflection of the explosion of information in molecular biology. Again, the text is produced on a short revision cycle (1983, 1985, 1987, 1990). Some rearrangement of chapters and parts generates a clear narrative on the status of genes and their expression. A check of putative frontier areas (zinc fingers, leucine zippers, enzymology of eukaryotic expression, etc.) shows that these topics are considered. No mention of sequencing the human genome appears. Systematic reading requires concentration. Each chapter contains a summary and a bibliography; often, the bibliography is subdivided into reviews, research articles, and articles about original discoveries. The last two parts ("The Dynamic Genome: DNA in Flux"; "Genes in Development") are the consummate syntheses, building upon the wealth and detail about gene expression and regulation established previously. Part 8 takes up recombination, transposons that mobilize via DNA, retroviruses and retroposons, and engineering changes in the genome (including transgenic mice and P elements in Drosophila). Part 9 considers generation of immune diversity, regulation by gene rearrangement, gradients and cascades in development (mainly Drosophila systems), and mitogens and cancer. This series continues to be important for upper-division undergraduates and beginning graduate students in the biological/chemical sciences. -T. A. Cole, Wabash College--Choice Review.
Subjects: Genetics
LC classification: QH430 .L488 1990