Product Description
This is the eBook version of the printed book.
This book thoroughly reviews our current scientific understanding of the significant role that mobile genetic elements play in the evolution and function of genomes and organisms–from plants and animals to humans. Highly-regarded geneticist Haig Kazazian offers an accessible intellectual history of the field’s research strategies and concerns, explaining how advances opened up new questions, and how new tools and capabilities have encouraged progress in the field.
Kazazian introduces the key strategies and approaches taken in leading laboratories (including his own) to gain greater insight into the large proportion of our genome that derives from mobile genetic elements, including viruses, plasmids, and transposons. He also presents intriguing insights into long-term research strategies that may lead to an even deeper understanding.
From the Back Cover
A Richly Engaging Review, History, and Prospective on Mobile DNA
Haig Kazazian reviews our current scientific understanding of mobile DNA and its role in the evolution and function of genomes and organisms, offering an in-depth portrait of the developing perspectives and research strategies pursued by the workers in his own laboratory. He presents an engaging history of the field, showing how advances have presented unexpected new questions, and how new tools and techniques have promoted further progress. Coverage includes: multiple types of mobile DNA; retrotransposition and other key concepts; important mobile DNA research advances in the human genome, mammals, and plants; mobile DNA’s role in increasing genome plasticity and diversity; and the roles of leading scientists in moving mobile DNA research forward. Kazazian concludes with informed reflections on the possible biological roles of mobile DNA, and his own current best guesses about how a number of the leading questions currently under active investigation will likely be answered.
