Pros: Great integration of labs and theory! Labs are easy. Nice support.
Cons: See my review for alternatives. Not for the 'just curious.'
The Bottom Line: Recommended for a very specific target audience. Just looking to understand Recombinant DNA technology? Try: Understanding DNA and Gene Cloning : A Guide for the Curious by Karl Drlica
javajnkie's Full Review: David A. Micklos, David A. Crotty, Greg A. Freyer ...
I'm not sure who would be reading this review, which makes it hard to write to my audience. I'll write to the people who would buy this book--they include:
* Teachers of advanced high school biology
* Undergrad students in a junior college, college, or university
* Profs looking for a textbook for a teaching lab or a lecture course focusing on recombinant technology.
* Anyone with a little bit of background in general, molecular, micro, or cell biology, molecular genetics. If you fall into this last category and don't have a lab available, note that half this book may not be useful, because it does include practice labs.
DNA Science: A First Course in Recombinant DNA is exactly that--a first course. It's a basic introduction to recombinant DNA that combines both history and theory with practical applications.
The first eight chapters of this book can be read like any other book. It's written in narrative, and explains the history and future of DNA science. The author writes a bit like a news reporter, and he has a solid background as both a biologist and a science writer, so his examples are taken from science literature but written clearly and in such a way that a beginning student could understand.
Here's the table of contents for the first part:
Foreword: Exposing Novice Biology Students to DNA Science
Chapter 1: Themes in the Development of DNA Science
Chapter 2: Questions in the Development of DNA Science
Chapter 3: Basic Tools and Techniques of DNA Science
Chapter 4: Advanced Techniques of DNA Science
Chapter 5: Gene Regulation in Development
Chapter 6: Molecular Biology of Cancer
Chapter 7: Applying DNA Science to Human Genetics
Chapter 8: Applying DNA Science in Agriculture, Medicine, and Industry
The next ten chapters are experiments, each building on the one before so that critical skills are repeated (and hopefully mastered!). The prelab notes are a little tedious, but the students I used this with in a teaching lab loved them. The notes include a bit of background information, with flow charts and icons. The icons reappear in the experiments to help the students keep track of where in the flow-chart they are. The lab notes also talk about scheduling and preparation, giving step-by-step outlines of how to budget your time so that one thing is 'ready' in time for the next. I would have liked to see this for only a portion of the labs (say, the first six), and then I would have liked the students to figure it out on their own.
The protocols are written clearly enough; I'm sure a high school student could follow them with no problems. These labs really are easy; the author doesn't assume any prior experience for either the teacher or the students. You don't even need prerequisite skills in pipetting or making dilutions--the first lab chapter covers it! If you were pressed for time, you could cover pipetting with the students but call Carolina Biological Supply for everything else. They offer full reagent support for all of these labs--buy the single-use kits with premixed reagents and you're good to go.
These are safe too--labs adhere strictly to National Institutes of Health Guidelines.
Here's the lab portion and appendices TOC:
Laboratory 1: Measurements, Micropipetting, and Sterile Techniques
Laboratory 4: Effects of DNA Methylation on Restriction
Laboratory 5: Rapid Colony Transformation of E. coli with Plasmid DNA
Laboratory 6: Purification and Identification of Plasmid DNA
*Plasmid Minipreparation of pAMP
*Restriction Analysis of Purified pAMP
Laboratory 7: Recombination of Antibiotic Resistance Genes
*Restriction Digest of Plasmids pAMP and pKAN
*Ligation of pAMP and pKAN Restriction Fragments
Laboratory 8: Transformation of E. coli with Recombinant DNA
*Classic Procedure for Preparing Competent Cells
*Transformation of with Recombinant DNA
Laboratory 9: Replica Plating to Identify Mixed E. coli Populations
Laboratory 10: Purification and Identification of Recombinant DNA
*Plasmid Minipreparation of pAMP/KAN Recombinants
*Restriction Analysis of Purified Recombinant DNA
APPENDICES
Appendix 1: Equipment, Supplies, and Reagents
Appendix 2: Recipes for Media, Reagents, and Stock Solutions
Appendix 3: Restriction Map Data for pAMP, pKAN, and Bacteriophage Lambda
Restriction Maps of pAMP and pKAN
Restriction Enzymes That Cut Once in pAMP or pKAN
Construction of pAMP
Construction of pKAN
The book ends with a bibliography, name index, and glossary/index.
Recommended if you're in the target audience and are looking for an integration of theory and practical labs. If you're just looking the labs and the prelab text, skip this one and pick up the Micklos's other book: Laboratory DNA Science. If you want just the history, I'd recommend skipping this one and reading either the appropriate chapters of Molecular Biology of the Cell, or more realistically, Understanding DNA and Gene Cloning : A Guide for the Curious by Karl Drlica (I'd like to buy a vowel, Pat).
. . .[A]n excellent molecular biology guide and lab manual for beginners. It is concocted uniquely as one part text that introduces the reader to the ...More at Buy.com
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