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First published online November 21, 2006
doi: 10.1242/10.1242/dev.02640
Book Review |
Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EH, UK
e-mail: s.russell{at}gejn.cam.ac.uk
"When I was a student I had to make my own
EcoRI" my PhD supervisor would declare, in a manner akin to the
gents in the four Yorkshiremen sketch that was popularised by Monty Python, as
I reached into the freezer for a bit of the said enzyme. Skip forward two
decades and my own graduate students are treated to similar reminiscences
regarding the re-distilling of phenol or the making of sequencing gels,
particularly when they are clutching requisitions for some molecular biology
`kit' that need my authorisation. Are these trips down memory lane simply the
irrelevant ravings of grumpy middle-aged men or is there a point to these
`when I were a lad' stories? Molecular biology is a bit of an art; I mean art
in its broadest sense of course, much in the same way that cooking is an art.
After all, almost anyone can follow a recipe, but turning out a gourmet meal
is a different matter, requiring an understanding of the individual
ingredients and how they blend together to provide a result greater than the
sum of the parts. Similarly with molecular biology: you can follow a protocol,
but will that genomic library contain all the sequences you want (tasty) or be
a collection of useless scrambled clones because you didn't do the partial
digests properly (unpalatable). Thus, good molecular biology is built upon a
sound understanding of the underlying biochemistry. Obviously, we old hands
like to think we can rustle up a decent plate of food without the aid of a
Nigel Slater cookbook - hence our enthusiasm for recounting our past
experimental exploits.
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This book, the seventh revision of a textbook first published in 1980, brings together two previously separate volumes - Principles of Gene Manipulation and Principles of Genetic Analysis and Genomics - into a single comprehensive text that attempts to summarise the doctrine of molecular biology as it is currently applied in modern biology. By comprehensive, I mean comprehensive. From the principals behind basic DNA cloning, through sequencing an entire genome, to the large-scale analysis of protein-protein interactions, the authors provide a Cook's tour through the molecular analysis of genomes and their products. The book is divided into four major parts. Part 1 covers the basics of molecular biology: how to clone, sequence and manipulate DNA, as well as an introduction to bioinformatics and sequence analysis. Part 2 covers the manipulation of DNA in different organisms (various bacteria, fungi, plants and animals), including chapters on the increasingly sophisticated possibilities for gene manipulation in transgenic mammals. Part 3 covers the 'omics (at least the ones I know about - there may have been some new 'omics invented since I wrote this review), including genome analysis, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics. Part 4 introduces some of the biomedical and biotechnological applications of 'omics, such as approaches to deciphering complex polygenic traits in humans or agricultural species, pharmaco - genomics and the industrial production of useful biomolecules. One should not underestimate the breadth of this book, it genuinely attempts, successfully in my view, to cover the range of topics that encompass virtually all of the types of molecular analysis a biologist may contemplate these days, and it does this very well indeed. Each chapter is prefaced by an introduction to the technique or problem, including a historical perspective. The reader is then led through the subject with the emphasis on explaining why particular steps or reactions are performed, what the problems are, and how variations have been devised to overcome limitations. In addition, each chapter contains several explanatory boxes that cover some principals or techniques in greater depth. The illustrative figures are generally informative without being overcomplex. Although there are a few details that I might not necessarily agree with (as with different cuisines - there's more than one way to cook a fish - there are also many ways to clone a gene), and despite the fact that on multiple occasions we are told that a bit of DNA can be `transformed into E. coli' (a particularly annoying grammatical construction that was beaten out of me as a student), these minor personal quibbles in no way detract from my very positive view of the book's quality.
It is important to emphasise that this is not a laboratory manual and, consequently, does not contain detailed protocols, rather it's a textbook designed to explain the biochemical or biophysical basis that underpins particular experimental manipulations. Having said that, it would sit very comfortably alongside the methods books found in most molecular biology labs, acting as a first port of call before a particular line of experimentation is initiated. At £30, it costs less than a few units of most restriction enzymes and will pay for itself many times over if it helps researchers troubleshoot the molecular biology they are doing. Therefore, I believe this book makes not only a superb advanced undergraduate level textbook, but an excellent addition to the research lab - it should be required reading for any graduate student embarking upon laboratory research and will also be useful for more experienced researchers starting a new line of investigation. With the pervasive `buy a kit for it' mentality that is prominent in laboratories these days, it is even more essential that bench researchers have a source other than the kit instructions for understanding each step in a particular protocol. Perhaps with such an understanding they may even attempt experiments without expensive pre-packaged reagents! When I was a graduate student, I made a few cDNA libraries: no kits, just the principals of the enzymology taken from the literature that guides the molecular biology. `You try and tell the young people of today that, and they won't believe you'.
[This book] genuinely attempts to cover the range of topics that encompass virtually all of the types of molecular analysis a biologist may contemplate these days, and it does this very well indeed
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