Practical Genetics for the 21st Century

Practical Genetics for the 21st Century by Ken Krauter and Mark Winey promotes the understanding of genetics (not memorization) by staying focused on human genetics delivered with vibrant exposition and examples in a 15 chapter textbook.

If you are itching for a genetics textbook from which your students can learn, and you can teach in one semester; Practical Genetics for the 21st Century is your book. Ken and Mark not only organized this book to be of a manageable depth, but they also focus on human genetics to keep student interest and promote understanding. The emphasis on human genetics in place of the usual model and historically important organisms stemmed from the fact that Ken and Mark found their students were more engaged in the material when they discussed examples from human genetics. They also found the vast majority of students are preparing for careers in the health sciences; and this book kept these students in mind. Therefore, examples from human genetics are found in the first chapter and in every chapter thereafter. Of course, the fly Drosophila is prominent in the text too, but other model organisms often found in traditional texts are removed.

Practical Genetics for the 21st Century also offers a conceptual progression of how the human genome project has revolutionized genetic approaches for gene discovery and analysis that is relevant to modern society. Ken and Mark do this through the currency of the Flat World Knowledge publishing model and strong, current treatment of genomics and bioinformatics.

This genetics text, like others, takes a ”Mendel First“ approach, but is different because Hardy-Weinberg law and evolution are presented early in the text as an extension of the basic Mendelian behavior of alleles of genes. Another example of the progressive organization of this book is the presentation of genome sequences and gene structure before linkage analysis. Contemporary linkage analysis and gene discovery is done in the context of completely annotated genome sequences, so students will progress through the material the way a working geneticists would approach the project in the 21st century.

Practical Genetics for the 21st Century by Ken Krauter and Mark Winey is a current, rigorous, but streamlined introductory genetics textbook intended for biology and pre-health-professional undergraduate majors. Its progressive, human-based approach will bring relevance and clarity to genetics students everywhere. But don’t take is from us, check it out yourself!

Table of Contents is unavailable