| Preface | ix |
| 1 | Genetics: past, present, and future | 1 |
| The search for order and meaning | 3 |
| The modern image of science | 5 |
| The prospects of modern genetics | 10 |
| 2 | From myth to modern science | 13 |
| Primitive interest in heredity | 15 |
| Mythology and the domestication of plants and animals | 16 |
| Heredity in human society | 20 |
| How are children made? | 23 |
| 3 | What is inherited? | 29 |
| Cellular structure | 30 |
| Molecular structure | 34 |
| Growth and biosynthesis | 41 |
| Enzymes | 43 |
| Synthesizing polymers | 46 |
| Cells as self-renewing, self-reproducing factories | 48 |
| 4 | The breakthrough: mendel's laws | 49 |
| Mendel's discoveries | 50 |
| Pedigrees | 53 |
| Another example: tasters and non-tasters | 58 |
| Blood types | 60 |
| Multiple alleles and dominance | 63 |
| Test crosses | 64 |
| Probability | 64 |
| Two or more genes | 66 |
| Mendel's first law and disputed paternity | 68 |
| Answers to blood types questions | 70 |
| 5 | Chromosomes, reproduction, and sex | 71 |
| Cells and reproduction | 71 |
| Mitosis and the cell cycle | 73 |
| Karyotypes | 75 |
| Meiosis | 76 |
| Meiosis explains Mendel | 82 |
| The location of genes | 83 |
| Sex chromosomes | 83 |
| Nondisjunction of chromosomes | 85 |
| XYY males: a genetic dilemma | 88 |
| 6 | The function of genes | 93 |
| Genes and metabolic disease | 93 |
| Genes and enzymes | 94 |
| Proteins and information | 97 |
| Modification of hereditary disease | 101 |
| 7 | The hereditary material, dna | 108 |
| Bacteria | 109 |
| The first clue | 111 |
| Bacteriophages | 114 |
| The Hershey--Chase experiment | 116 |
| DNA structure | 118 |
| Genetic implications | 122 |
| Testing DNA structure | 124 |
| 8 | The genetic dissection of gene structure | 127 |
| Gene arrangement | 127 |
| Crossing over within genes | 132 |
| Phage genetics | 134 |
| Fine structure of genes | 134 |
| Complementation and the definition of a gene | 135 |
| What is a gene? | 137 |
| Restriction enzymes and palindromes | 139 |
| Restriction mapping | 142 |
| 9 | Deciphering the code of life | 146 |
| How are proteins made? | 148 |
| RNA molecules: the tools for protein synthesis | 150 |
| RNA transcription | 152 |
| The translation process | 154 |
| The complexity of eucaryotic genes | 156 |
| Cracking the code | 159 |
| Colinearity of genes and proteins | 160 |
| Stop codons | 162 |
| Universality of the code | 163 |
| 10 | Heredity in the bacterial world | 164 |
| Mutant bacteria | 164 |
| Sex in E. coli | 165 |
| Plasmids | 168 |
| Resistance factors and antibiotic resistance | 168 |
| Lysogeny | 173 |
| Gene transfer by virus | 174 |
| Transduction in humans | 175 |
| 11 | Gene regulation and development | 179 |
| Bacterial gene regulation | 180 |
| Regulating eucaryotic genes | 184 |
| Embryonic development in general | 185 |
| Regulation by time in a chick's wing | 188 |
| Determination by position in a fly's body | 189 |
| Forming a fly's eye | 191 |
| 12 | Dna manipulation: the return of epimetheus? | 194 |
| Recombinant DNA and restriction enzymes | 195 |
| Studies of individual cloned fragments | 197 |
| Transgenic organisms | 200 |
| Human gene therapy | 203 |
| Genomics, the study of complete genomes | 205 |
| 13 | The geneticist as dr. frankenstein | 209 |
| The regulation of recombinant-DNA research | 209 |
| Genetically modified organisms | 213 |
| Technology in context | 215 |
| The arguments against producing GMOs | 217 |
| Cloning as an ethical target | 224 |
| The responsibility of scientists | 226 |
| 14 | The fountain of change: mutation | 229 |
| Mutation rates | 230 |
| Mutation in humans | 231 |
| Radiation | 232 |
| What are mutations like? | 235 |
| DNA repair systems | 238 |
| General effects of radiation | 239 |
| Chromosome aberrations | 242 |
| Looking at human chromosomes | 244 |
| Aneuploidy | 245 |
| Duplications and deficiencies | 246 |
| Inversions | 248 |
| Translocations | 249 |
| 15 | Evolutionary genetics | 251 |
| Evidence for evolution | 253 |
| Evolution as a process | 255 |
| Population genetics | 257 |
| Human evolution | 260 |
| The migration and diversification of Homo sapiens | 261 |
| Eugenics | 264 |
| Glossary | 268 |
| Notes | 288 |
| Further reading | 292 |
| Index | 294 |
