Main description:

It's in Your DNA: From Discovery to Structure, Function and Role in Evolution, Cancer and Aging describes, in a clear, approachable manner, the progression of the experiments that eventually led to our current understanding of DNA. This fascinating work tells the whole story from the discovery of DNA and its structure, how it replicates, codes for proteins, and our current ability to analyze and manipulate it in genetic engineering to begin to understand the central role of DNA in evolution, cancer, and aging.

While telling the scientific story of DNA, this captivating treatise is further enhanced by brief sketches of the colorful lives and personalities of the key scientists and pioneers of DNA research. Major discoveries by Meischer, Darwin, and Mendel and their impacts are discussed, including the merging of the disciplines of genetics, evolutionary biology, and nucleic acid biochemistry, giving rise to molecular genetics.

After tracing development of the gene concept, critical experiments are described and a new biological paradigm, the hologenome concept of evolution, is introduced and described. The final two chapters of the work focus on DNA as it relates to cancer and gerontology.

This book provides readers with much-needed knowledge to help advance their understanding of the subject and stimulate further research. It will appeal to researchers, students, and others with diverse backgrounds within or beyond the life sciences, including those in biochemistry, genetics/molecular genetics, evolutionary biology, epidemiology, oncology, gerontology, cell biology, microbiology, and anyone interested in these mechanisms in life.

Contents:

1. The Beginning 2. Chemistry of DNA 3. DNA is the Genetic Material 4. DNA in Three Dimensions: the Double Helix 5. Duplicating DNA 6. From Genes to Enzymes 7. Cracking the Genetic Code 8. DNA Sequencing and PCR 9. Jumping Genes 10. Genetic Engineering 11. Human Genome 12. Human Microbiome: We are Not Alone 13. Contribution of Microbes to the Health of Humans, Animals and Plants 14. Origin of Nucleic Acids and the First Cells 15. Evolution: From Darwin to the Hologenome Concept 16. DNA and Cancer 17. DNA, Aging and Death