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Title: Principles of Gene Manipulation by Sandy B. Primrose, Richard M. Twyman, Robert W. Old ISBN: 0-632-05954-0 Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Pub. Date: 01 March, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $87.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Absolutely Terrific
Comment: This text is just really great. The choice of words that go into the explanations are top notch. This was the requred textbook in my recombinant DNA course.
It is written by biologists for biologists; very technical very exact; again just absolutely terrific for both review and in depth understanding.
The only downfall I would say is that the Index isn't as good as it could be, but other than that I think every biology graduate student should own it....yeah its that good IMHO.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent overview of a very exciting field
Comment: Certainly one of the most exciting developments in the last quarter century, genetic engineering is also one of the most controversial, and discussions of it are typically accompanied by vehemence and exaggerations. An objective study of genetic engineering is thus mandatory for everyone in the 21st century. This book is one of the best treatments of genetic engineering that I have read, and I am speaking not as a biologist but as someone actively involved in bioinformatics and computational biology. The explanations of the techniques of genetic engineering are excellent and the reader with a fairly good background in biochemistry should have no problem following the presentation. Readers without such a background will find the reading a little more demanding. One can only admire the ingenuity of the many researchers and technicians who have developed these techniques. The only thing missing in the book are exercises at the end of each chapter to test the readers understanding of the relevant concepts.
The last five chapters of the book are the most interesting ,for it is in these chapters that the authors discuss the genetic manipulation of animals, transgenic strategies, and biotechnology. We are all priveleged to be witnessing the development of new breeds of plants and animals, and hopefully this trend will continue in the 21st century. The impact of genetic engineering for medicine and agriculture will be immense, but even more mundance activities such as gardening and horticulture will be even more interesting with the development of new kinds of plants via transgenic strategies. In addition, genetic engineering is finding applications to areas outside of biology. It was recently reported that genetically engineered viruses are being used to assist in the development of quantum dots in microelectronics.
Some of the features of the book I found particularly helpful or interesting were: 1. The numerous diagrams employed in the book that tie concepts together or give flow charts for laboratory procedures. 2. The discussion on the physics of gel electrophoresis. Apparently the dynamics of stained molecules undergoing electrophoresis is poorly understood. 3. The historical and anecdotal information that the authors include at various places in the book. 4. The discussion on optimizing translation. The degeneracy of the genetic code might lead one to believe that the choice of codons by genes is essentially a random process. The authors argue this is not the case and give excellent references for further reading on this. Apparently protein translation is a tight scheme, and again, this is surprising given the degeneracy of the genetic code. 5. The box on express sequence tags. The most interesting part of this discussion was on the legal issues involving the patenting of ESTs. The patent applications were rejected because ESTs were viewed as incomplete sequences. This rejection might serve as a precedent to future attempts to patent genes or complete genomes. Will some of these patents be rejected on the grounds that genes do not completely determine the protein(s) or phenotype(s)? Whatever the outcome, the legal profession in the 21st century will have to deal with information-theoretic criteria when addressing patent issues in genetic engineering. 6. The listing of the Internet tools available for gene sequencing and protein structure. 7. The discussion on the quantitative effect of sequence accuracy on gene accuracy, assuming the random occurence of sequencing errors. The diagram shown of average sequence-error rate versus the fraction of error-free genes shows clearly the importance of robust and precise sequence-similarity search algorithms. Interestingly, the authors argue that, in spite of the success of statistical methods in these algorithms, the use of these methods will decrease as new sequences are accumulated and sequence conservation is used as the criterion for gene identification. They do however state that these methods will still remain useful for localizing frame shifts and for the choice of the initiation codon. 8. The box on the modes of replication of circular DNA molecules. The biophysicist reader will appreciate the discussion on the two types of replication: by theta-like structures or the rolling-circle type of mechanism. 9. The discussion on applications of transgenic mice, position effects, and transgene silencing. The authors discussion of the efficacy of transgenic strategies in mice progeny is fascinating in that some mice progeny has expression that was very different from that of the parents, or even absent. The authors give a brief discussion of boundary elements and matrix attachment regions with references for further reading. 10. The short discussion on transgenic fish. 11. The box on control of transgene expression in plants. 12. The discussion on the use of immunosuppressant drugs as chemical inducers of dimerization. The side effects of these drugs has prompted research into finding transgene induction strategies that do not have these side-effects. 13. The discussion on post-translational inducible protein activity. 13. The discussion on visible marker genes, especially the discussion on green flourescent protein. 15. The discussion on the use of antisense RNA to regulate gene expression in prokaryotes. 16. The discussion on the use of cosuppression in increasing the amount of pigment synthesized by petunia flowers. The application of transgenic strategies to horticulture is indeed exciting and one that will hopefully result in new varieties of houseplants and garden fruits and vegetables. 17. The discussion on the role of functional genomics. 18. Transgenic animals and plants as bioreactors: Tracy and her progeny in producing AAT. 19. Xenotransplantation. This is no doubt one of the most controversial techniques used in genetic engineering today.
Rating: 5
Summary: Genetic manipulation
Comment: We are looking for information about genetic manipulatio
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Title: Gene Cloning and DNA Analysis: An Introduction by T. A. Brown, T. A. Gene Cloning Brown ISBN: 063205901X Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Pub. Date: 15 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $60.95 |
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Title: DNA Science: A First Course, Second Edition by David Micklos, Greg A. Freyer ISBN: 0879696362 Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press Pub. Date: 08 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: An Introduction to Genetic Engineering by Desmond S. T. Nicholl ISBN: 0521004713 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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Title: Molecular Biology of the Cell by Bruce Alberts, Alexander Johnson, Julian Lewis, Martin Raff, Keith Roberts, Peter Walter ISBN: 0815332181 Publisher: Garland Science Pub. Date: March, 2002 List Price(USD): $110.00 |
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Title: Principles of Genome Analysis by S. B. Primrose, Richard M. Twyman, Sandy B. Primrose ISBN: 1405101202 Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Pub. Date: 01 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $68.95 |
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