Book Review

“INSTANT NOTES IN GENETICS.”By P.C. Winter, G. I. Hickey, and H. L. Fletcher

BIOS Scientific Publishers Limited, Oxford, U.K.,1998, 384 pp.

Like the Cliffs Notes series produced to help studentsgain quick familiarity with a piece of literature, theInstant Notes series published by Bios Scientific Pub-lishers Limited provide students in science relativelyquick access to key concepts in science. The authors ofthis particular book in the series, Instant Notes in Ge-netics, do an outstanding job, given this abbreviatedformat of providing new-to-genetics readers with arelatively comprehensive, well-written overview of sev-eral basic concepts in prokaryotic and eukaryotic ge-netics. Discussions covering a variety of topics are in-cluded and range from basic explanations of transcrip-tion and translation to applications of moleculargenetics in forensics and biotechnology. In clear, easy-to-read language it introduces the reader to generalterminology, basic principles, and classic methodologyin genetics that should give budding geneticists andstudents in other fields who require familiarity withgenetics, essential exposure to the field of genetics tofacilitate their growing comprehension of the subjectand their ability to do additional reading or study of thetopics.

The book contains 53 short chapters (on average ap-proximately 6 pages each) divided into 5 major sectionswhere each one focuses on a specific topic includingMolecular Genetics, Genomes, Mechanisms of Inheri-tance, Population Genetics and Evolution, Recombi-nant DNA Technology, and Applications of Genetics.Each chapter begins with 1 or 2 pages of key words orphrases printed on a facsimile of a computer buttonicon, which are defined or described in a few clearlywritten sentences. These ‘buttons’ serve to highlightthe major concepts and terms that are specifically ad-dressed in the chapter and serve as a concise overviewof each chapter’s content. More than half of the pagesin most chapters either contain simple black and whiteline drawing illustrations or tables to accompany thetext. While not particularly eye-catching, the basic il-lustrations are generally easy to understand, clearlylabeled, and have appropriate legends. Although thereare no references at the end of each chapter, there is ageneral, relatively short reference list for each sectionat the end of the book, which generally refers readers tomore detailed textbooks or review articles. Impres-sively, this book was published in 1998 and it containsreferences for some 1998 publications.

The book is comprehensive in the number of topicsintroduced, but by necessity, each topic is briefly andrather simply addressed. The authors have done a stel-lar job teasing out and presenting key points. As in anybook of this type, several points are by necessity over-looked. In the chapter on DNA Cloning (Chapter E2),

an excellent, well-illustrated overview of cloning usingplasmids, bacteriophage, and yeast artificial chromo-somes is presented. However, there is no discussion onother large genomic clones such as BACs and PACs,which are clones that will likely be more frequentlyencountered in both the laboratory and in the genomicliterature by students of today. The chapter on geneticdiseases (Chapter F1) gives a brief overview of Mende-lian inheritance patterns, monogenic diseases, andDNA testing. Unfortunately the part devoted to DNAtesting is largely limited to a discussion of linkageanalysis using restriction fragment length polymor-phisms (RFLPs). While RFLP testing still has a placein molecular diagnostic testing, the bulk of DNA test-ing for inherited disease, or predisposition to inheriteddisease, relies on detection of specific previously iden-tified mutations (e.g., cystic fibrosis, fragile X syn-drome, Huntington disease, hemochromatosis, etc.) orscreening known genes for unknown mutations (e.g.,breast cancer genes BRCA1, BRCA2, etc.). From a mo-lecular diagnostic standpoint, this section reads likeone that might have been written a decade ago, whichin this fast moving field, is truly a different era. Hope-fully, in the next incarnation of this book, updates willbe included to make it more current. Perhaps at thattime the focus in diagnostics will be rooted largely inmicroarray technology of multiple diseases in one as-say. There is also no significant discussion of nontra-ditional mechanisms of genetic disease such as im-printing. From the perspective of one who teaches ge-netics for both medical and graduate students, it seemsthat imprinting is one of the more difficult concepts forthe students to comprehend. A few paragraphs andsimple illustrations in a book like this would undoubt-edly be beneficial to many of its readers. An addition tothe book that I think would be worth a few extra pageswould be a chapter focusing on the myriad of internetresources and databases and their uses in genetics. Al-though some of these internet sites may change, a de-scriptive listing of the major sites that are used wouldbe useful for readers of the book. Alternatively, links torelated sites in each chapter would be beneficial.

The division of subject matter between chapters issometimes difficult to understand. For instance, thereis an early chapter on chromosomes (Section B: Ge-nomes, Chapter B1) where morphology, molecularstructure, chromatin, and alteration in chromosomenumber are discussed. There is no discussion of chro-mosome rearrangements in this section. Somewhatsurprisingly, the discussion of structural chromosomerearrangements is not found until later in the book inthe section, Population Genetics and Evolution, in achapter called Chromosome Changes in Evolution(Chapter D6). In this chapter, the concept of a karyo-type is once again discussed along with mechanisms ofchromosome rearrangements, deletions, duplications,inversions, and translocations among others. Yet an-

American Journal of Medical Genetics 87:286–287 (1999)

© 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

other chapter (Chapter D8) discusses polyploidy insome detail. Understandably, many subjects in genet-ics could easily be categorized under a myriad of dif-ferent broad categories depending on the emphasis ofthe book and preference of the authors. For the mostpart, the content for the chapters and sections in thistext is quite good and easy to follow. For those subjectsthat are not categorized the way in which I, given myown biases, might think about them, there is appropri-ate attention to cross referencing within the chapters.In fact, included in each chapter is a list of chapterswith related topics at the end of the key points for eachchapter. There also is a relatively comprehensive indexat the back of the book. Interestingly, while the chapteron chromosomes (Chapter B1) does list chapters on celldivision (Chapter B2), the human genome (ChapterB4), meiosis and gametogenesis (Chapter C3), andpolyploidy (Chapter D8), it fails to list the chapter deal-ing with chromosome rearrangements (Chapter D6).

This most likely represents a minor oversight in thefirst publication of this text.

Instant Notes in Genetics is not, nor is it designed tobe, a primary text in genetics. Rather, this text pro-vides a concise overview of an impressively comprehen-sive array of important topics in prokaryotic and eu-karyotic genetics. Similar to Cliffs Notes publications,such overview publications generally lack detailed in-formation that helps make the subject more interestingto serious students and that is essential for masteringthe subject. However, it is a clearly written, simplyillustrated, affordable text that should serve both as anexcellent initial reference textbook and as a solid, com-prehensive review text for students of genetics.

Elizabeth M. PettyUniversity of MichiganMedical GeneticsAnn Arbor, Michigan

Book Review 287