Principles of Genetics

This Eighth Edition offers clear, comprehensive and unique coverage of genetics, with an emphasis on applications, written primarily for students. Provides up-to-date coverage of the most recent techniques used in modern genetics such as gene cloning and Southern, Western and Northern blot analyses of genes and gene products. Rather than simply treating the somewhat esoteric principles of genetics in abstraction, Gardner's text stands apart from most other introductory texts in that it stresses actual and potential future applications of the principles discussed, particularly in agriculture and medicine. Among the specifc topics covered are cell mechanics; properties and replication; chromosome mapping; gene expression; mutation; gene cloning; genetic controls of immune response and cell division; genetic engineering and more.

The cover shows many facets of genetics. Top row, Left: The DNA double-helix, here imaged in a scanning tunneling micrograph, is central to all genetics research. Right: Experimentation has shown that some social behaviors, such as nest cleaning by honeybees, is under genetic control. Second row, Left: Inherited disorders such as albinism, manifested here in a bullfrog, have provided many insights about the genetic control of metabolism. Right: Gregor Mendel's 19th-century work with pea plants elucidated the basic principles of inheritance. Third row, Left: Efforts to combat HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, depend on knowing how the virus expresses its genes inside the cells of the immune system. Right: The fruit fly is ideally suited for studies on the genetic control of embryonic development and organ formation. Fourth row, Left: The identification of mutations that cause unregulated cell division facilitates the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of breast cancer. Right: HeLa cells, derived in 1951 from Henrietta Lacks, a woman who died of cervical cancer, thrive in the laboratory and are used in research worldwide. Bottom row: The replication of chromosomes (left) is a prerequsite for cell division (right).