The authors have developed a text that reflects the directions Genetics is taking as it heads into the 21st century. This perspective embraces five major themes: 1. The central importance of the genome, as opposed to the action of individual genes; 2. The application of genetics to the improvement of human health; 3. The growing appreciation for the relationships among organisms arising from genetic research; 4. The impact of biotechnology on the accelerating growth of genetic knowledge; and 5. The importance of emerging social and ethical issues related to our use of biotechnology.

I Basic Principles: How Traits are Transmitted 1 Mendel's Breakthrough: Patterns, Particles, and Principles of Heredity 2 Extension to Mendel for Single-Gene Inheritance 3 The Chromosome Theory of Inheritance 4 Linkage, Recombination, and the Mapping of Genes on Chromosomes II What Genes Are and What They Do 5 DNA: How the Molecule of Heredity Carries, Replicates, and Recombines Information 6 Anatomy and Function of a Gene: Dissection Through Mutation 7 Gene Expression: The Flow of Genetic Information from DNA via RNA to Protein III Using Genetic Engineering to Unravel the Information in Genomes 8 DNA at High Resolution: Use of DNA Cloning, PCR, and Hybridization as the Tools of Genetic Analysis 9 The Direct Detection of Genotype 10 The Mapping and Analysis of Genomes IV How Genes Travel 11 The Eukaryotic Chromosome: An Organelle for Packaging and Managing DNA 12 Chromosomal Rearrangements and Changes in Chromosome Number Reshape Eukaryotic Genomes (and more...)