New “Try Problem” links, spread throughout each chapter, point to an end-of-problem that addresses the concept just considered so students can immediately test their understanding of the concept.
New, separate chapter on Genomics and Proteomics (Ch. 15) gives more coverage to this advancing field.
Expanded coverage of epigenetics, incorporated into in three different chapters (Ch. 4, Extensions and Modifications of the Basic Principles; Ch. 8, DNA: The Chemical Nature of the Gene; and Ch. 12, Control of Gene Expression) shows students the wide-ranging impact of this emerging topic across the breadth of modern genetics.
New Topics, including
• comparison of types of dominance (4)
• epigenetics and the development of queen bees (4)
• genomewide association studies (Chapters 5 and 17)
• segmental duplications (6)
• copy-number variations (6)
• horizontal gene transfer (7)
• rapid evolution of influenza viruses (7)
• epigenetic changes and chromatin modifications (8)
• RNA world (10)
• rifamycins (10)
• Piwi-interacting RNAs (10)
• epigenetic effects in eukaryotic gene regulation (12)
• epigenetic effects in identical twins (12)
• molecular mechanism of epigenetics (12)
• updated discussion of trinucleotide repeats (13)
• evolution of transposable elements and their role in genetic variation (13)
• next-generation sequencing techniques (14)
• metagenomics (15)
• synthetic biology (15)
• the Human Proteome Project (15)
• apoptosis and cancer (16)
New Summary Tables throughout the book make side-by-side comparisons of similar processes, summarizing the steps and players in complex biological pathways, and organizing important genes, molecules, or ideas visually.
New chapter-opening introductory stories update a favorite feature of previous editions, giving students a glimpse of modern genetic practice today. New topics such as:
• Life in a Bacterial World
• Topoisomerase, Replication, and Cancer
• Death Cap Poisoning
• Hutterites, Ribosomes, and Bowen–Conradi Syndrome
• Helping the Blind to See
New end-of-chapter problems specifically address concepts discussed in most introductory stories, both old and new.