Genetics and Molecular Biology

This book evolved from a course in molecular biology which I have been teaching primarily to graduate students for the past twenty years. Because the subject is now mature, it is possible to present the material by covering the principles and encouraging students to learn how to apply them. Such an approach is particularly efficient as the subject of molecular genetics now is far too advanced, large, and complex for much value to come from attempting to cover the material in an encyclopedia-like fashion or teaching the definitions of the relevant words in a dictionary-like approach. Only the core of molecular genetics can be covered by the present approach. Most of the remainder of the vast subject however, is a logical extension of the ideas and principles presented here. One consequence of the principles and analysis ap- proach taken here is that the material is not easy. Thinking and learning to reason from the fundamentals require serious effort, but ultimately, are more efficient and more rewarding than mere memorization. An auxiliary objective of this presentation is to help students develop an appreciation for elegant and beautiful experiments. A substantial number of such experiments are explained in the text, and the cited papers contain many more. The book contains three types of information. The main part of each chapter is the text. Following each chapter are references and problems. References are arranged by topic, and one topic is “Suggested Read- ings”. The additional references cited permit a student or researcher to find many of the fundamental papers on a topic. Some of these are on topics not directly covered in the text. Because solving problems helps focus one’s attention and stimulates understanding, many thought-pro- voking problems or paradoxes are provided. Some of these require use of material in addition to the text. Solutions are provided to about half of the problems.