BSCB Newsletter, Winter 2011

Book review: Molecular Biology, Genes to Proteins, 4th Edition

Burton  E Tropp.
Publishers: Jones & Bartlett Learning
Publ. date: April 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4496-0092-1  (paperback) : 1000 pages.
Published price: £39.99 [BSCB members can purchase at discount]

For me most books fall into one of three categories rather like I consider restaurant meals.

The first is the traditional 'Sunday Lunch' type meal: plenty of good wholesome food prepared in the way that it has been prepared and presented down the years. Some might say 'a bit traditional and heavy' but one rarely hears complaints about not feeling satisfied afterwards.

The second type of meal is one in which the chef is more of a creative food artist than a traditional cook. The food is there but often in a more limited quantity and adorned with sauces drizzled on with varying degrees of artistry and with the addition of interesting, but sometimes distracting, extras such as dried seaweed or flower petals.

Thirdly there is the type of meal that appears acceptable and adequate, satisfies you at the time but is not memorable two hours later.

Using this analogy, Tropp's Molecular Biology, Genes to Proteins, fourth edition, falls into meal category 1. There is plenty of good wholesome material using a 'recipe' devised by the author of the first edition, David Freifelder in 1983, (the same year that Benjamin Lewin's Genes I was published). Freifelder used a 'layering approach', building up from a basic to more complicated level, and in which he 'emphasised basic molecular processing'.  Tropp has continued this time tested recipe and layering approach by ensuring key concepts and techniques are introduced early in the first three sections of the book.

The 4th edition content has been thoroughly updated especially in the fields of replication, transcription and translation. A new chapter has been added about regulatory RNA and new parts included on RNA structure, the ubiquitin proteasome proteolytic pathway, epigenetic programming, imprinting and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells). Some of these parts are necessarily brief but at least they are included.

Colour printing is used usefully in both tables and diagrams but the book does not have tinted panels or boxes dedicated to specific items as found in some first edition newer books in the field. I liked the extensive (twenty-five page) detailed contents list, written in a declarative style, at the beginning of the book. These statements are repeated at the beginning of the appropriate chapter just before the chapter overview. If you combine the two you have a useful chapter summary. I like having a chapter summary and missed this in Tropp, but I found going back to the start of the chapter useful.

I very much liked how the end of chapter 'Further Reading' suggestions were grouped under headings such as 'General', 'RNA Structure', 'The RNA World Hypothesis', and so on.

Accessing the Student Companion Website mentioned in the International Edition of the book is not as direct in the UK as it is in the USA, but access is available. To obtain an access code the reader will need to email cgribble@jblearning.com who is the publisher's manager in the UK.  Although indirect, this service means that lecturers can apply for a number of access codes for their students even though the readers may be using library copies of the book.  Unfortunately at the present time there is nothing in the International Editions on sale in the UK to indicate that this facility is available. The reviewer is informed that future publicity material will indicate this availability. A Media CD ROM of Lecture Outline Slides and images in PowerPoint is available to registered Instructors.

As I found my way round this volume I liked it more and more. It does not have the ‘signposting' that is so good in Lewin's Genes and you have to 'know the book' to make best use of it. To use the meal analogy, this book provides a good solid nutritional meal and readers will feel well satisfied.

David Archer