Genomes, 2nd ed. T.A. Brown. Oxford, United Kingdom: Wiley-Liss, 2002, 600 pp., $97.50, cloth. ISBN 0-471-25046-5.

Abstract

T.A. Brown first published his textbook Genomes in 1999, just before the draft sequences of fruit fly, mustard weed, and human genomes appeared in Science and Nature. The first edition reflected the author’s conviction that molecular biology has evolved beyond a preoccupation with the activities of individual genes and must now embrace functional analysis of all the genes in a species’ repertoire. Three years later, he has produced a second edition to incorporate new developments in genome science and to make the book more “user friendly”. The goal for the second edition is to be “a more gentle introduction for students who are encountering molecular biology for the first time”. Brown largely succeeds in meeting his stated goal, yet his book substantially exceeds that modest objective; this is a textbook suitable for anyone who does not specialize in genome science.