Battle of the Genomes. The Struggle for Survival in a Microbial World
Buy a book... In Association with Amazon.co.uk
Author(s): H. M. Lachman
Publisher: Science Publishers
ISBN: 1578084326
Format: softback
334pp
Price: $16.80
Review Date: 24 October 2006
Review: Every strip of DNA from every living organism carries a unique story of survival. There is also a downside to DNA’s error-prone chemistry: it causes birth defects, cancer and genetic disorders. This book chronicles aspects of microevolution revolving around our encounters through the ages with catastrophic infectious diseases, the genetic changes that have resulted in the creation of deadly microbes, and our genomic response to them. The book begins with a broad overview of infectious diseases and the immune responses to them. It goes on to chronicle catastrophic infectious diseases (the cholera morbus, the burning fever, the salty sweat disease, the super mutation).The last three chapters describe how scientists, in order to invent recombinant DNA technology, have now appropriated some of the genetic tools that bacteria and viruses use to increase the virulence. There are now diagnostic and therapeutic tools to treat disease and fight infections, and, most dramatically, they have discovered the genetic basis of cancer.