1. Introduction to Genetics
2. Chromosomes and Cellular Reproduction
3. Basic Principles of Heredity
4. Extensions and Modifications of Basic Principles
5. Linkage, Recombination, and Eukaryotic Gene Mapping
6. Chromosome Variation
7. Bacterial and Viral Genetic Systems
8. DNA: The Chemical Nature of the Gene
9. DNA Replication and Recombination
10. From DNA to Proteins: Transcription and RNA Processing
11. From DNA to Proteins: Translation
12. Control of Gene Expression
13. Gene Mutations, Transposable Elements, and DNA Repair
14. Molecular Genetic Analysis and Biotechnology
15. Genomics and Proteomics
16. Cancer Genetics
17. Quantitative Genetics
18. Population and Evolutionary Genetics

Content updates coming this Fall 2024:

For this Digital Update of the Fifth Edition, we have updated the content to reflect new advances in genetics that have emerged since the fifth edition was published. For example, we have updated the section on pedigrees to include new symbols to represent transgender and nonbinary people. Three chapters have new introductory stories, a popular feature of the book that helps draw students into the chapter. Throughout the book, we have updated and revised the content to make the book more inclusive for all students.

New and updated content includes:

• Three new chapter-opening stories, including “Rebecca Saunders and the Discovery of Gene Interaction” (Chapter 4), “Bacterial Light” (Chapter 12),  “Hutchinson-Gilford Syndrome, the Secret of Aging, and CRISPR-Cas” (Chapter 14).
• 21 new end-of-chapter problems
• Newer, more up-to-date examples of cutting-edge research (Chapter 1)
• New section on the role of DNA in inheritance that ties genetic information to the four bases (Chapter 3)
• New brief section on the complexity of genetic traits (Chapter 3)
• The discussion of biological sex vs gender has been expanded to include the concepts intersex, cis gender, trans gender, and gender fluid. (Chapter 4)
• New data on the frequency of structural variants and information on their importance (Chapter 6)
• The central dogma is now highlighted in a brief new section (Chapter 8)
• The Holliday model is deemphasized; the text notes that recombination is mostly initiated by double-strand breaks initiated by Spo11 (Chapter 9)
• Additional information on RNA splicing: splicing occurs cotranscriptionally (Chapter 10)
• New terminology: The roles of writers, readers, and erasers  (Chapter 12)
• Insulators act through their influence on TADs (Chapter 12)
• Under a new C head is briefly introduced an additional, 4th mechanism of gene regulation by miRNAs: triggering the decay of mRNAs (Chapter 12)
• A brief new paragraph on the use of epigenetic editing to bring about epigenetic changes that alter gene expression (Chapter 12)
• New CRISPR technique: prime editing (Chapter 14)
• RNA therapy and mRNA vaccines very briefly introduced (Chapter 14)
• A description of the two types of gene therapy, in vivo and ex vivo. (Chapter 14)
• Update: completion in 2022 of the most complete version of the human genome to date. (Chapter 15)
• Genome studies of non-Europeans; examples are indigenous people of the Americas and people of African ancestry (Chapter 15)
• The use of metagenomics to identify a disease pathogen in a patient (Chapter 15)

Fifth Edition Updates: 

The fifth edition of Genetics Essentials is now supported in Achieve. Achieve supports educators and students throughout the full range of instruction, including assets suitable for pre-class preparation, in-class active learning, and post-class study and assessment. The pairing of a powerful new platform with outstanding biology content provides an unrivaled learning experience.

Features of Achieve include:

• A design guided by learning science research. Co-designed through extensive collaboration and testing by both students and faculty including two levels of Institutional Review Board approval for every study of Achieve
• A learning path of powerful content including pre-class, in-class, and post-class activities and assessments.
• A detailed gradebook with insights for just-in-time teaching and reporting on student achievement by learning objective.
• Easy integration and gradebook sync with iClicker classroom engagement solutions.
• Simple integration with your campus LMS and availability through Inclusive Access programs.

New media and assessment features in Achieve include:

• Assessment questions with hints, feedback, and solutions provide a powerful pedagogical framework to teach students problem solving skills through formative assessments
• Adaptive Quizzes and Reading Quizzes can be assigned before class to encourage reading and pre-class preparation.
• The Active Learning Hub with in-class activities contains slides and worksheets to help you easily implement more active learning in your classroom
• Concept Mapping Problems allow students to learn through this effective method while still being automatically graded
• Problem Solving Videos provide a step-by-step methodology for working through tough problems
• Math readiness assignments allow for remediation of weak math skills that could hold students back in genetics

Updates to the text:

• Connecting Problems allow students to connect concepts across chapters. These questions ask students to integrate what they have learned over several chapters, and to apply what they learned to problem solving.
• Concept Mapping Exercises help students conceptually map out topics within a chapter, including key terms and describing how they are connected. Creating connections between concepts and ideas is critically important for effective learning. These new concept mapping exercises are designed to help students build understanding of the relationships among important concepts and terms by creating a visual map that depicts these relationships. These problems can be assigned as homework, or students can work on them in groups, allowing them to discuss how to organize the concepts in a map.
• End-of-chapter Learning Objectives help frame the concepts covered in each section. A set of Learning Objectives, one for each A-head (followed by key concepts for that A-head), helps students identify the main learning goals for each chapter.

Genetics Essentials continues to stay on the cutting edge of genetics discoveries:

1. More content on modifications of CRISPR-Cas systems and their various functions, such as making single-stranded cuts in DNA, making single base substitutions, altering cellular DNA, studying evolution, and inhibiting gene expression.
2. Updated biotechnology in Chapter 14 to include third-generation sequencing technologies, such as PacBio and nanopore sequencing, and gene therapy.  This revision also pared-back coverage of outdated techniques such as locating DNA fragments with probes, genomic libraries, and pyrosequencing.
3. Revised organization of epigenetics section in chapter 12. This section now moves from the molecular details of epigenetic modifications, to epigenetics in development, to epigenetics in behavior.
4. New section on Interpreting Phylogenetic Trees in Chapter 18