Prokaryotes Genetics

This is a comprehensive textbook on the molecular genetics of bacteria and their viruses for second and third-year undergraduates. The text has been developed to present the subject in greater depth than the sectional approach used in many text, but with greater clarity than texts devoted wholly to the subject. The perspective adopted in the text is an evolutionary one, examining bacteria and bacterial parasites as organisms faced with the problems of survival, adaptation and replication. The text proceeds to examine the genetic machinery involved in maintaining such functions, including sections on DNA repair and defence. Chapters on diversity, mutation and genetic instability lead the reader onto transfer of genetic material and DNA recombination. The concluding section of the text takes previously analyzed genetic principles and shows how man is able to implement them in various applied environments such as in vitro genetics, in vitro genetics and cloning, microbial biotechnology and artificial evolution.