Book Review
DNA Segredos & Mistérios
Solange Farah
For 45 years DNA have been the initials most frequently used in titles of scientific papers. The amount of information available on this life molecule which has been produced along the years is astonishing, and there is still a lot to be found out about it. We are just beginning to unveil its machanics, which has been made possible by the discovery of the basic concepts of recombinant DNA technology. Our knowledge has advanced rapidly, after the human genome was deciphered. The question now is, what is still to come? What to say about the enormous quantity of functionless DNA present in our genome as well as the intense movement of the genetic elements and even the significant pollution of environmental DNA which has resulted in gene cassettes which code for resistance to antimicrobial agents and are inserted into integrons?
It is easier to write about a limited subject than about those for which plenty of information is available. It is not easy to deal with a subject about which a great deal of basic knowledge is being unveiled by Genetic Engineering and whose immediate commercial application is already being anxiously anticipated. How is one to handle the physiology of the human genome when it is entirely deciphered and allows the diagnosis of the human diseases, predictive medicine and gene therapy? Laws will have to be created to regulate the authorship of new scientific contribution, as well as to establish a new ethics for society.
The author, a respectable expert in Human Genetics and Molecular Biology, managed to convert all this complex information, which has been produced along the years, into a concise, understandable, attractive and rigorously scientific text. Her intention in writing this book was "to help those professionals, who, though not directly involved with molecular biology, have already noticed the revolution it is bringing about late this century, to find the missing pieces". With this book she also intended to help people to regard Genetic Engineering as she herself sees it:" As an exciting intellectual adventure, an area of study destined to accelerate our understanding of life, a technology which is having ever growing positive impact on the human society and a methodology which opens our imagination to possibilities hitherto only envisioned by scientific fiction"
Written for teachers and high school and undergraduate students, this book also meets the expectations of graduate students, professionals of biological sciences and physicians in their clinical work, and it will certainly be of interest to laymen in general. Using easy to understand language this book has been organized into 10 chapters, which range from basic concepts concerning the cell and its genetic material to ethical issues related to the Human Genome Project. Other topics are the construction of recombinant DNA molecules, isolation of specific genes, the deciphering of the human genome, diagnosis of human diseases, gene therapy, issues related to DNA, organisms modified by genetic engineering and the DNA industry.
The author's clarity in transmitting to lay people such up-to-date subjects as DNA technology, the DNA industry and ethics, without detriment to the accuracy of the information, is striking. A summary of key points and suggested further readings are added to the end of each chapter and an objective and useful glossary-index follows the end of the last one. Due to its superb quality, Farah's book can certainly be ranked among the best recent works in this field.
Sérgio Olavo Pinto da Costa
Departamento de Microbiologia,
ICB2, USP, São Paulo, SP, Brasil.
E-mail: sopdcost@biomed.icb2.usp.br
Sarvier, 1st edition, 1997, 288 pages and illustrations
Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
01 Mar 1999 -
Date of issue
Dec 1998
