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What do our genes actually do?
• What are the risks and benefits of genetically modifying plants and animals?
• How can gene therapy cure disease?
Answering all the key questions, addressing all the major issues, this is an indispensable introduction to the science that is changing our world. Outlining the way in which our genetic structure works, it provides all the information necessary for readers to form their own opinions on such important topics as gene therapy, genetic engineering, and genetically modified foods. Accessibly written, but based on expert knowledge and contemporary research, this book offers a step-by-step guide to the subject of genetics, covering:
• Mendel’s Laws and their implications • the function of genes • the structure of DNA • the human genome and DNA manipulation • Illustrations and diagrams make difficult concepts easy to follow, while a useful glossary explains all the key terms and ideas. For those wishing to join the debates that will decide our future, this Beginner’s Guide to Genetics will prove a timely and authoritative handbook. Contents: Genetics: past, present • The search for order and meaning • The modern image of science • The prospects of modern genetics • From myth to modern science • Primitive interest in heredity • Mythology and the domestication of plants and animals • Heredity in human society • How are children made? • What is inherited• Cellular structure • Molecular structure • Growth and biosynthesis • Enzymes • Synthesizing polymers • Cells as self-renewing, self-reproducing factories • The breakthrough: Mendel’s Laws • Mendel’s discoveries • Pedigrees • Another example; tasters and non-tasters • Blood types • Multiple alleles and dominance • Test crosses • Probability • Two or more genes • Mendel’s first law and disputed paternity • Answers to blood types questions • Chromosomes, reproduction, and sex • Cells and reproduction • Mitosis and the cell cycle • Karyotypes • Meiosis • Meiosis explains Mendel • The location of genes • Sex chromosomes • Nondisjunction of chromosomes • XYY males: a genetic dilemma • The function of genes • Genes and metabolic disease • Genes and enzymes • Proteins and information • Modification of hereditary disease • The hereditary material, DNA • Bacteria • The first clue • Bacteriophages • Complementation and the definition of a gene • What is a gene? • Restriction enzymes and palindromes • Restriction mapping • Deciphering the code of life • How are proteins made? • RNA molecules: the tools for protein synthesis • RNA transcription • The translation process • The complexity of eucaryotic genes • Cracking the code • Colinearity of genes and proteins • Stop codons • Universality of the code • Heredity in the bacterial world • Mutant bacteria • Sex in E. coli • Plasmids • Resistance factors and antibiotic resistance • Lysogeny • Gene transfer by virus • Transduction in humans • Gene regulation and development • Bacterial gene regulation • Regulating eucaryotic genes • Embryonic development in general • Regulation by time in a chick’s wing • Determination by position in a fly’s body • Forming a fly’s eye • DNA manipulation: the return of epimetheus? • Recombinant DNA and restriction enzymes • Studies of individual cloned fragments • Transgenic organisms • Human gene therapy • Genomics, the study of complete genomes • The geneticist as Dr. Frankenstein • The regulation of recombinant-DNA • Genetically modified organisms • Technology in context • The arguments against producing GMOs • Cloning as an ethical target • The responsibility of scientists • The fountain of change: mutation • Mutation rates • Mutation in humans • Radiation • What are mutations like? • DNA repair systems • General effects of radiation • Chromosome aberrations • Looking at human chromosomes • Aneuploidy • Duplications and deficiencies • Inversions • Translocations • Evolutionary genetics • Evidence for evolution • Evolution as a process • Population genetics • Human evolution • The migration and diversification of Homo Sapiens • Eugenics • glossary • notes ISBN - 9781851683048
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Pages : 308
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