~]OOK ~EVIEWS

4 Gill, G.S., Hull, R.C. and Curtiss, R. (1981)J. Virol. 37, 42ff430

5 Chow, L.T. and Bukhari, A.I. (1976) Virology 74, 242-248 6 Chow, L.T., Broker, T.R., Kahmann, R. and Kamp, D.

(1978) in Microbiology 1978(Schlessinger, D., ed.), pp. 55-56, American Society for Microbiology

7 Tominaga, A., Ikemizu, S. and Enomoto, M. (1991) J. Bacteriol. 173, 4079-4087

8 van de Putte, P., Plasterk, R.H.A. and Kuypers, A. (1984) J. Bacteriol. 158, 517-522

9 Plasterk, R.H.A. and van de Putte, P. (1985) EMBOJ. 4, 237-242

10 Hiestand-Nauer, R. and Iida, S. (1983) EMBOJ. 2, 1733-1740

11 Klemm, P. et al. (1985) Mol. Gen. Genet. 199, 41ff414 12 Klemm, P. (1986) EMBOJ. 5, 1389-1393 13 Huber, H.E., Iida, S., Arber, W. and Bickle, T. (1985)

Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 82, 3776-3780 14 Kahmann, R., Rudt, F., Koch, C. and Mertens, G. (1985)

Cell 41,771-780 15 Johnson, R.C. and Simon, M.I. (1985) Cell 41,781-791 16 Johnson, R.C., Bruist, M.F. and Simon, M.I. (1986) Cell

46, 531-539 17 Koch, C. and Kahmann, R. (1986)J. Biol. Chem. 261,

15673-15678 18 Kanaar, R., van de Putte, P. and Cozzarelli, N.R. (1986)

Biochim. Biophys. Acta 866, 170-177 19 Schmid, M.B. (1990) Cell63, 451-453 20 Johnson, R.C., Glasgow, A.C. and Simon, M.I. (1987)

Nature 329, 462-465 21 Kanaar, R., van de Putte, P. and Cozzarelli, N.R. (1988)

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 85, 752-756 22 Kahmann, R. et al. (1987) in DNA Replication and

Recombination (Kelley, T.J. and McMacken, R., eds), pp. 6814590, Alan R. Liss

23 Heichman, K.A. and Johnson, R.C. (1990) Science 249, 511-517

24 Kanaar, R. (1988) Site-specific DNA Inversion in the Genome of Bacteriophage Mu (PhD Thesis), Leiden University

25 Plasterk, R.H.A., Ilmer, T.A.M. and van de Putte, P. (1983) Virology 127, 24-36

26 Moskowitz, I.P.G., Heichman, K.A. and Johnson, R.C. (1991) Genes Dev. 5, 1635-1645

27 Kanaar, R., van de Putte, P. and Cozzarelli, N.R. (1989) Cell 58, 147-159

28 Heichman, K.A., Moskowitz, I.P.G. and Johnson, R;C. (1991) Genes Dev. 5, 1622-1634

29 Kanaar, R. et al. (1990) Cell 62, 353-366 30 Kanaar, R. et al. (1989) Nucleic Acids Res. 17,

6043-6053 31 Osuna, R., Finkel, S.E. and Johnson, R.C. (1991) EMBOJ.

10, 1593-1603 32 Koch, C., Ninneman, O., Fuss, H. and Kahmann, R.

(1991) Nucleic Acids Res. 19, 5915-5922 33 Spaeny-Dekking, E.H.A., Goosen, N. and van de Putte,

P. (1992) Mol. Biol. (Life Sci. Adv.) 11, 91-104 34 Klippel, A., Cloppenburg, K. and Kahmann, R. (1988)

F21/IBO J. 7, 3983-3989 35 Sherratt, D. (1989) in Mobile DNA (Berg, D.E. and Howe,

M.M., eds), pp. 163-184, American Society for Microbiology

36 Hatfull, G.F. et al. (1988) Syrup. Soc. Gen. Microbiol. 43, 148-181

37 Surette, M.G. and Chaconas, G. (1992) Cell 68, 1101-1108

38 Lavoie, B.D., Chan, B.S., Allison, R.G. and Chaconas, G. (1991) EMBOJ. 10, 3051-3059

39 Thompson, J.F. and Landy, A. (1989) in Mobile DNA (Berg, D.E. and Howe, M.M., eds), pp. 1-22, American Society for Microbiology

40 Ninneman, O., Koch, C. and Kahmann, R. (1992) EMBO J. 11, 1075-1083

41 Nilsson, L., Vanet, A., Vijgenboom, E. and Bosch, L. (1990) EMBOJ. 9, 727-734

42 Ross, W., Thompson, J.F., Newlands, J.T. and Gourse, R.L. (1990) EMBOJ. 9, 3733-3742

P. VAN DE P ~ T E AND N. GOOSEN ARE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF MOLECULAR GENETICS, GORLAEUS LABORATORIES, LEIDEN UNIVERSITI~, P O BOX 9502, 2 3 0 0 RA LEIDEN, THE NETHERLANI~

~ ~ The big picture

Techniques for the Analysis of Complex Genomes edited by Rakesh Anand

Academic Press, 1992. £19.95 (xii + 239 pages) ISBN 0 12 057620 1

Recent years have witnessed a rapid expansion in techniques for cloning and manipulating large segments of DNA. Such techniques have already allowed the cloning and mapping of large genomic regions, and have been or are expected to be useful in cloning of entire genomes.

Techniques for the Analysis of Complex Genomes is a spiral-bound paperback benchtop manual that contains a variety of protocols and strategies for cloning and analysing 'big' DNA, with a

primary emphasis on procedures that use yeast artificial chromosomes (YACs). Individual chapters have been contributed by a number of different researchers. Included are a wide variety of methods ranging from construction of YAC libraries to the analysis and manipulation of individual YAC clones. Several interesting (and currently hypothetical) strategies for establishing contig maps using a fingerprinting approach or microdissection techniques are also presented. In addition there is a chapter on analysis of genomic DNA by pulsed field gel electrophoresis and DNA blot analysis, and an excellent chapter on the P1 cloning system.

Many of the chapters provide comprehensive and recent coverage of a

T1G DECEMBER 1992 VOL. 8 NO. 12

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specific method or strategy. In addition to the P1 cloning chapter, particularly enjoyable were the chapters on cloning human telomeres in YACs, the techniques for analysis of YAC clones (contig assembly, restriction mapping, etc.) and the chapters detailing contig assembly using fingerprinting and microdissection. In general, the book also made numerous attempts to be up to date and contained considerable amounts of unpublished information. For example, the chapter focusing on YAC stability and use of a recombination-deficient host was a very useful addition to the book, even though limited data are available on this topic.

Some of the topics might have benefited from either a more thorough description of the methods or inclusion of experimental details. Probably one of the most important chapters is how to prepare YAC libraries (Chapter 4). However, this chapter appeared weak in

~]OQK []~EVIEWS

that the protocol described differs from those used to produce some of the best YAC libraries characterized to date; the chapter also fails to indicate adequately what steps are most problematical and what to do about them. Furthermore, unconventional yeast nomenclature is used.

Some of the other chapters contain factual inaccuracies and/or overinterpretations. For example, Chapter 11 implies that probing blots with vector arms is a possible means to identify chimeric clones; I am unaware of any evidence to support this contention. Chapter 9, on the identification of transcribed sequences within YACs,

presents rather unconvincing mapping gels and hybridization data. For the most part such problems are confined to a few chapters.

Although a wide variety of current methods are covered by this book, some basic protocols and/or areas are not. For example, no method is presented for the preparation of genomic DNA in agarose plugs, and the discussion of chimeric YACs, certainly one of the major problems with YAC cloning, is fairly limited. The book might also have benefited from a chapter on in situ hybridization, complete with protocols.

In spite of its shortcomings, the book will be useful to the maw researchers

~ ~ Barbara McClintock and 20th century biology The Dynamic Genome: Barbara McClintock's Ideas in the Century of Genetics edited by Nina Fedoroff and David Botstein

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 1992. $65.00 (vii + 422 pages) ISBN 0 87%9 422 X

Barbara McClintock died on 2 September 1992, at the age of 90. A collection of all of her publications has been published: The Discovery and Characterization of Transposable Elements (B. McClintock, Garland, 1987). There is a popular biography as well: a Feeling for the Organism (Evelyn Fox Keller, W.H. Freeman, 1983). In The Dynamic Genome, Nina Fedoroff and David Botstein, themselves active geneticists, and among those influenced most directly by McClintock's ideas, have organized and edited a vast, charming and valuable volume of scientific history and results that have only one focus in common: all derive in some way from McClintock's ideas. This volume is an unlikely assemblage of introductory material for the nongeneticist: particularly important McClintock reprints, recollections of a personal nature, historical accounts of the milieu in which McClintock worked, and - most importantly - 24 particularly thoughtful 'stories' of successful research areas that were influenced by McClintock's work. Each story is told by an acknowledged leader in the field, and each is crafted with care. This volume, in its entirety, provides a way for the general biologist or historian to begin to understand McClintock as an influential part - but a part nonetheless - of a larger scientific community of ideas built upon experimental discoveries.

The title, The Dynamic Genome, refers to the overall hypothesis that emerged from the whole of McClintock's later work on the behavior and origin of transposable elements in maize. This hypothesis is often called 'genome shock', and has led to the now accepted view of the genome as far

more fluid and evolutionarily adaptable than had been previously imagined. Her Nobel lecture of 8 December 1983, reprinted and discussed by several authors in this volume, eloquently puts forth her hypothesis.

The editors set the celebratory tone of this volume in a delightful and concise four-page introduction. Four sections follow. The first is 'Cytogenetics', in which Creighton and McClintock's definitive 1931 proof of four-strand crossing-over is featured, along with various reminiscences (Creighton, Bumham, Crouse, Perkins) and an historical account of the early years of maize genetics, written in 1984 by the late Marcus M. Rhoades.

The 'Transposition' section begins with a reprint of McClintock's review of her own proof of transposition and its origin via chromosome breakage. What follows are ten stories by biologists who also studied transposition using a variety of biological systems from microbes to mammals; some remembrances of McClintock are included as well. Contributors are A. Campbell, E.M. Witkin, M. Green, O.E. Nelson, O.L. Miller, Jr, J.G. Gall, M.L. Pardue, C.D. Laird and A.M. Skalka.

The next section includes a brief and compelling essay by McClintock explaining how her experimental results led, step by step, to the discovery of transposable elements, and discussing problems that arose when new ideas encounter scientific dogma. McClintock chose a selected list of publications that document the progress of her research. Fourteen stories follow, each exploring a particular biological problem in a variety of systems: plants, mammals, nematodes,

TIG DECEMBER 1992 VOL. 8 NO. 12

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who are now working with YACs. It will probably be of most use to those who are somewhat new to the field, although there are many valuable facts that advanced YAC cloners might enjoy as well. Since methods in this area are constantly improving and new methods are continually being developed, this book will probably become dated within a few" years, but for now it definitely fills a niche.

Michael Snyder

Department of Biology, Yale, University, New Haven, CT 0651~1, USA.

Drosophila, yeast and bacteria. Contributors are J.A. Shapiro, MM. Howe, D. Botstein, N. Kleckner, H. Saedler and P. Starlinger, N.D.F. Grindley, G. Albrecht-Buehler, B.M. Alberts, I. Herskowitz, J.N. Strathem, A.J.S. Klar, M.L Simon, and P. Anderson and co-workers.

Two contributions end this volume. Elizabeth Blackburn discusses her more molecular work on 'Broken chromo- somes and telomeres' in the light of McClintock's earlier discoveries; the blend of old and new is reassuring. Editor Nina Fedoroff recounts her own introduction to McClintock, her attempts to read and understand McClintock's work and, finally, to provide a molecular basis for McClintock's genetic data. Fedoroff's scholarship as it concerns McClintock's work is exemplary. She goes on to recollect how the major molecular discoveries were made concerning the maize transposon controlling elements Ac-Ds and Spm; many of these advances were made in the Fedoroff laboratory. The intensity of the Fedoroff article makes for an interesting read.

There is, without question, a hero worship tone to this volume, and this reviewer is uncomfortable about the ve~, idea of hero worship: it is so regressive, and so often attracts insinceriD~. I have wondered, do heroes themselves have heroes?

Nevertheless, the enthusiasm of the editors and contributors, and their obvious sincerity, cannot be denied. This volume proves that Barbara McClintock's data and ideas have been enormously influential and that McClintock as a person was loved and respected. It is a timely contribution to the general field of science histo~,. And for those of us who have met or worked with McClintock, or would have liked to, this volume helps keep her spirit alive in us.

Michael Free l ing

Depamnent of Plant Btolo,w. Unive~,xi(l' q/ California, Berkeley. CA 94720. (.~A.