2006-10-14 Generally good - but diagrams are not always clear

This book is divided into 4 sections:

1. Fundamental Techniques of Gene Manipulation
2. Manipulating DNA in microbes, plants and animals
3. Genome Analysis, Genomics and Beyond
4. Applications of Gene manipulation and Genomics

The basics seem to be covered well in part 1. A lot of the background knowledge to gene cloning: restriction endonucleases, plasmid and phage vector biology, gene cloning strategies, PCR, Southern Blotting, and other techniques - has been covered fairly well for the last decade in other text books (see T A Brown's books). However, the explanation and diagrams for microarrays (a newer technique) could be improved, because I didn't find them entirely helpful in understanding the method of their use in sequencing. The diagrams did not seem adequately labelled in this case, and the key seemed to reference colours which did not exist (the book is printed in black and shades of pink).

I bought this mainly to get update on newer techniques which aren't in my textbooks from when I was an undergraduate several years ago. In particular genome analysis - a field that has expanded rapidly in the past 5-6 years since the human genome was sequenced (and genomes of other species). For this, it is generally good, but I was disappointed with some explanations of techniques I was completely unfamiliar with. I think the design of the diagrams and the keys for them are ambiguous in a couple of cases.

I haven't yet read any chapters in Parts 2 and 4. However the rest of the book is quite good - additionally it contains lots of useful references, an abbreviations list, suggested websites for databases and the cross-referencing within the book itself is helpful. It is missing a glossary however, and perhaps full colour diagrams would help in some cases.