Gene Regulation

Written by David Latchman

Gene Regulation by Professor David Latchman addresses gene control systems from a eukaryotic standpoint in a way that is concise and contemporary. Specifically, it attempts to rectify the current tendency towards prokaryotic control models. Professor Latchman’s work looks at a range of ways that genes are regulated and characterizes how they impact the organism overall.

The first section of the book discusses the variety of processes and mechanisms that can help control genes across all levels, concluding that the essential control structures are found at the level of gene transcription. The book goes on to examine in detail the steps of transcriptional regulation and describes how incidents taking place at the molecular level impact an organism’s biology through the expression of different proteins. The last section of the book elaborates upon how issues with the regulation of gene expression can cause disease, with a focus on oncology in particular.

In the fifth edition of this work, Professor Latchman has updated existing material with an expansion of the sections about large-scale methodologies and the addition of a new section about how small interfering RNAs contribute to gene regulation. He has also written further explanations about the roles played by multi-protein complexes in transcriptional activation as well as how specific modifications, such as acetylation, ubiquitination, and phosphorylation, affect the process. The section about human disease found at the end of the book now has more examples, such as how RNA editing impacts motor neuron disease, the way transcriptional co-activator CBP impacts Alzheimer’s disease, and the manner in which PML-RAR impacts acute promyelocytic leukemia.

Gene regulation is a crucial and exciting field of study in modern biology. Therefore, Professor Latchman’s book will be of strong appeal to intermediate and advanced students of molecular biology, biochemistry, and genetics in addition to researchers and clinicians as a basic reference text.

An updated and revised version of this work can be found in the book Gene Control
Gene Regulation

Reviews

"Latchman has done a grand job of synthesis......Readers will be rewarded by an up to date, but very succinct account of progress in an exciting and important area."
Times Higher Education Supplement
"The text is lucid and free of jargon and generally a pleasure to read."
The Lancet
"It is a delight to read, and the arguments are set out clearly and logically ."
Trends in Genetics
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