The Science and Ethics of Engineering the Human Germ Line: Mendel's Maze

specifically applied to the unique challenges of studying plants. The book claims to assume no specialized knowledge of plant biology and indeed goes in some detail into necessary background information and terms. And herein lies the problem with this book. By being limited to so few pages, the book at times seems to pick and choose what to focus on, covering in excellent detail and clarity some areas, while giving short shrift to others. The introduction of the book effectively lays out the plan for the book and most importantly to me, explains why there is value in writing a book specifically devoted to plant genomics. The author explains that some of the unique characteristics of plants, such as the large variability in genome size and the frequent occurrence of polyploidization, provide particular challenges to the application of genomic tools and research. Needless to say, with the growing body of research on plant biology facillitated by genomics, a book to summarize and impose some order on this field is useful. The author also points out the importance of research on crop plants and addresses some of the controversies surrounding genetic manipulation of plants. Chapter 1 gives a nice overview of the structure of plant genomes and provides an excellent introduction to both what makes plants unique and different from other frequently studied non-plant organisms. The following chapters take the reader on an informative tour of the field of genomics covering topics such as sequencing strategies, acquiring functional information, gene discovery, and the use of microarrays. There are some areas that read more like an introduction to genomics in general, with few references to plants in particular. The last few chapters focus in more on plants in particular with a chapter on interactions with the external environment and a discussion of traits that are controlled by multiple genes. These chapters cover information on research quite relevant to plant research and provide lots of information clearly and concisely. The section on plant resistance is particularly noteworthy. The last chapters cover resources in bioinformatics that are available to researchers and a short section on some bioethical concerns that plant biotechnology has raised. Overall, the author does an admirable job of summarizing a large and growing field. I also appreciate his attempts to explore the ways in which genomics are applied to plant research and some of the recent advances in this area. However, my greatest complaint is that the author seems to have been forced to pick and choose areas to focus on, rather than giving a more general summary. Perhaps less detail and a broader paintbrush would have been more successful. Also, dare I say, the book could have also benefitted from a few more pages.