"This book chronicles the muddled history of molecular biology. The complexity of animal and plant genomes and early conceptual triumphs further complicate this record. Key personalities, their hubris and prescient predictions are illustrated with quotes, archival material, photographs and diagrams to bring people, ideas and discoveries to life"--.

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Authors
• Chapter 1 Overview
  • The Genetic Material?
  • Halcyon Days
  • Worlds Apart
  • Strange Genomes, Strange Genetics
  • The Age of Aquarius
  • All that Junk
  • The Expanding Repertoire of RNA
  • Glimpses of a Modern RNA World
  • Genome Sequencing and Transposable Elements
  • The Human Genome
  • Small RNAs with Mighty Functions
  • Large RNAs with Many Functions
  • The Epigenome
  • The Programming of Development
  • RNA Rules
  • Plasticity
  • Beyond the Jungle of Dogmas
• Chapter 2 The Genetic Material?
  • Sugars and Fats
  • Proteins: ‘The Locus of Life’
  • Nucleic Acids and Chromosomes
  • Chromosomes as the Mediators of Genetic Inheritance
  • The Modern Synthesis
  • Distinguishing DNA and RNA
  • One Gene-One Protein and the ‘Nature of Mutations’
  • DNA Is the Genetic Material
  • The Double Helix – Icon of the Coming Age
  • Further Reading
• Chapter 3 Halcyon Days
  • The Big Question
  • Discovery of the Ribosome
  • The Messenger and the Adaptor
  • The ‘Genetic Code’
  • The Lac Operon and Gene Regulation
  • Protein Structure
  • The Central Dogma
  • It’s All Over Now
  • Further Reading
• Chapter 4 Worlds Apart
  • The Origin of Cells
  • Genetic Recombination
  • The Emergence of Complex Organisms
  • Chromatin
  • Chromatin-Associated RNAs
  • Early Models of RNAs in Nuclear Architecture
  • Heterogeneous Nuclear RNA
  • Heroes or Fools?
  • Further Reading
• Chapter 5 Strange Genomes, Strange Genetics
  • Repetitive DNA
  • Controlling Elements
  • Paramutation, Imprinting and Transinduction
  • The Bithorax ‘Complex Locus’
  • Transvection
  • Epigenetic Modifiers
  • The Britten and Davidson Model
  • Boolean Models of Combinatorial Control
  • Processed RNAs as Global Regulators
  • Out on a Limb
  • Further Reading
• Chapter 6 The Age of Aquarius
  • Recombinant DNA and ‘Gene Cloning’
  • Enabling Technologies
  • DNA Sequencing
  • The Gold Rushes
  • HOX Genes
  • Oncogenes and Tumor Suppressors
  • Immunology and Monoclonal Antibodies
  • Biotechnological Exploitation
  • Cell-Free DNA Amplicat fi ion and Shotgun Cloning
  • A World of Proteins
  • Further Reading
• Chapter 7 All That Junk
  • The C-Value Enigma
  • Duplication and Transposition
  • Mutational Load, Nonsense DNA, Nonsense RNA
  • ‘Neutral’ Evolution
  • Conservation and Selection
  • Junk DNA
  • Selfish DNA
  • Genes-in-Pieces!
  • Not Junk?
  • Further Reading
• Chapter 8 The Expanding Repertoire of RNA
  • Spliceosomal RNAs
  • Small Nucleolar RNAs
  • Other Small Guide, Scaffolding and Regulatory RNAs
  • Catalytic RNAs and the Ancient RNA World Hypothesis
  • The Catalytic Heart of Splicing and Translation
  • The Digital and Analog Faces of RNA
  • Candles in the Dark
  • Further Reading
• Chapter 9 Glimpses of a Modern RNA World
  • Riboregulators
  • Riboswitches
  • Antisense RNAs and Complex Transcription in Eukaryotes
  • Long Untranslated RNAs
  • UTR-Derived RNAs
  • First Examples of Small Regulatory RNAs in Animals
  • Curiosities or Emissaries?
  • Further Reading
• Chapter 10 Genome Sequences and Transposable Elements
  • Genome Mapping
  • Genetics at Genome Scale
  • Whole Genome Sequencing of Bacteria and Archaea
  • Genome Sequencing of Unicellular Eukaryotes
  • Genome Sequencing of Model Plants and Animals
  • The G-Value Enigma
  • Comparative Genomics at Nucleotide Resolution
  • Pseudogenes and Retrogenes
  • Transposable Elements
  • Transposable Elements as Functional Modules
  • Transposable Elements as Drivers of Phenotypic Innovation
  • The Great Exploration – The Diversity of Life
  • From Genome Sequence to Genome Biology
  • Further Reading
• Chapter 11 The Human Genome
  • The Project
  • Assessment of Functionality
  • The Majority of the Genome Is Active
  • Damaged Genes
  • A Plethora of ‘Rare Diseases’
  • Complex Traits and Disorders
  • The Transformation of Medical Research and Healthcare
  • Further Reading
• Chapter 12 Small RNAs with Mighty Functions
  • Unusual Genetic Phenomena Involving RNA
  • The RNA Interference Pathway
  • Transcriptional Gene Silencing: RNA-Directed DNA Methylation
  • Research and Biotechnology Applications
  • MicroRNAs
  • Piwi-Associated RNAs
  • Other Classes of Small RNAs
  • RNA Communication between Species
  • CRISPR
  • RNA-Directed Genome Editing
  • Further Reading
• Chapter 13 Large RNAs with Many Functions
  • Pervasive Transcription
  • The Amazing Complexity of the Transcriptome
  • Protein-Coding or Noise?
  • The Restricted Expression of Long Non-coding RNAs
  • Other Indices of Functionality
  • Genetic Signatures
  • An Avalanche of Long Non-coding RNAs
  • A Plethora of Functions
  • The Wild West
  • Further Reading
• Chapter 14 The Epigenome
  • Chromatin Structure
  • Topological Domains
  • Enhancers
  • Nucleosomes and Histones
  • Nucleosome Remodeling
  • Histone Modicat fi ions
  • The Histone Code
  • DNA Methylation
  • The Regulation of Development
  • Further Reading
• Chapter 15 The Programming of Development
  • Autopoiesis
  • The Overarching Question
  • Tissue Architecture and Cell Identity
  • Programmed Ontogeny
  • Lineage Specification
  • How Much Information Is Required?
  • Constraints Imposed by the Superlinear Scaling of Regulatory Information
  • How Much Information Is There in the Human Genome?
  • Genomes as .zip Files of Transcriptomes
  • Further Reading
• Chapter 16 RNA Rules
  • RNA Is a Core Component of Chromatin
  • Regulation of Chromosome Structure
  • RNA Guidance of Chromatin Remodeling
  • Guidance of Transcription Factors
  • Guidance of DNA Methylation
  • Guidance of Histone Modifications
  • Xist as the Exemplar
  • Enhancer RNAs and Chromatin Structure
  • RNA Scaffolding of Phase-Separated Domains
  • An Addition to the Ancient RNA World Hypothesis
  • Structure-Function Relationships in lncRNAs
  • A New View of the Genome of Complex Organisms
  • Further Reading
• Chapter 17 Plasticity
  • RNA Modifications and the Unknown Epitranscriptome
  • The Expansion of RNA Editing in Cognitive Evolution
    • A>I Editing
    • C>U Editing
  • The Brain
  • RNA-Directed Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance
  • Further Reading
• Chapter 18 Beyond the Jungle of Dogmas
  • The Misunderstanding of Molecular Biology
  • The Evolution of Evolvability
  • Further Reading
• References