genetics Additional Reading

Additional Reading » Historical accounts

Nina Fedoroff and David Botstein (eds.), The Dynamic Genome: Barbara McClintock’s Ideas in the Century of Genetics (1992), treats this scientist’s work and the history of modern genetics. James D. Watson, The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA (1968, reissued 2001), available also in a critical edition edited by Gunther S. Stent (1980, reissued 1998), is written by one of DNA’s discoverers. Paul Rabinow, Making PCR: A Story of Biotechnology (1996), is an ethnographic account of the discovery of one of the most important tools in contemporary genetics and molecular biology.

Additional Reading » Genetics texts

Benjamin Lewin, Genes IX, 9th ed. (2008), emphasizes the molecular aspects of genetics. Sandy Primrose, Richard Twyman, and Bob Old, Principles of Gene Manipulation, 6th ed. (2001), is one of the best texts dealing exclusively with genetic engineering. James D. Watson et al., Recombinant DNA: Genes and Genomes: A Short Course, 3rd ed. (2007), discusses the methods and applications of recombinant DNA technology and other current methods in molecular genetics.

Additional Reading » Bacterial genetics texts

The rise of contemporary molecular genetics had its inception in studies on bacterial genetics and on viruses that infect bacteria. Molecular genetics related to bacterial structure and function are presented in Frederick C. Neidhardt, John L. Ingraham, and Moselio Schaechter, Physiology of the Bacterial Cell: A Molecular Approach (1990). Arnold J. Levine, Viruses (1991), is an excellent treatment.

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