Textbook of Genetics

In the modern world, genetics has brought about more dramatic breakthroughs than any other field of biological study. These breakthroughs have a wide impact, from curing diseases to growing better vegetables to catching criminals. The field of genetics is in the midst of a revolution, and at the center of it is genetic engineering: the alteration of genetic material by direct intervention in genetic processes. Some of the biggest strides in genetic engineering and related fields are taking place in the realm of medicine. Genetic engineering in the area of health aims at understanding the causes of disease and developing treatments for them. Gene therapy is another outgrowth of these studies.Selected Contents: The Genetic Signatures of Noncoding RNAs; Highly Dynamic and Sex-Specific Expression of microRNAs During Early ES Cell Differentiation; Genome-Wide Analyses of Exonic Copy Number Variants in a Family-Based Study Point to Novel Autism Susceptibility Genes; An Ancestry Informative Marker Set for Determining Continental Origin: Validation and Extension Using Human Genome Diversity Panels; Comparative Chromosome Mapping of Repetitive Sequences: Implications for Genomic Evolution in the Fish, Hoplias malabaricus; An Increase in Mitochondrial DNA Promotes Nuclear DNA Replication in Yeast; DNA Damage, Homology-Directed Repair, and DNA Methylation; DNA Sequences Shaped by Selection for Stability; Novel Roles for Selected Genes in Meiotic DNA Processing; The Role of Mitochondrial DNA Mutations in Mammalian Aging; Genome-Wide Requirements for Resistance to Functionally Distinct DNA-Damaging Agents; Global Patterns in Human Mitochondrial DNA and Y-Chromosome Variation Caused by Spatial Instability of the Local Cultural Processes; Making Ends Meet: Repairing Breaks in Bacterial DNA by Non-Homologous End-Joining; Index