This book is part of the very successful Methods in Molecular Biology series that provides research protocols and methodologies for biological scientists. This addition to the series is divided into 18 chapters, covering the areas of gene discovery and gene functional analysis. Chapter layouts vary between reviews of current technologies, detailed laboratory protocols, and procedures for using genomic databases.
Appropriately, the book begins with a comprehensive review on the role of model plant species, highlighting their utility to the plant science community. This is followed by chapters on molecular markers, genetic mapping, BAC library construction, and expression profile mapping. A chapter on proteomic analysis is then presented before the book shifts to dealing with gene functional analysis. A series of chapters follow on transformation of plants, mutagenesis libraries, protein expression systems, and structural biology. A chapter is also included with protocols for in situ analysis of gene expression in plants. The remainder of the book looks at plant and crop databases, genome sequencing and annotation, molecular plant breeding, commercialization of transgenic plants, and evolutionary ecological genomics.
Not every chapter strictly follows the Methods in Molecular Biology series format, which traditionally includes an introduction, step-by-step methods, a list of necessary materials, and a notes section providing troubleshooting tips. Rather, some chapters are reviews of current technologies and therefore may be of little benefit to the reader looking for detailed protocols; however, the book does succeed in covering a wide range of topics and will therefore be a useful addition to university libraries. The chapters that do provide very detailed methods and protocols include those on: in situ analysis of gene expression, BAC library construction, stable and transient transformation of plants, screening T-DNA libraries, and proteomic analysis.
The book is let down by some poor-quality illustrations and a complete lack of colour. This is particularly a problem where figure legends refer to colours in the illustrations! In summary, the book is well written with some informative and detailed protocols for plant molecular biologists; however, the book is by no means a comprehensive methods and protocol book for plant genomics.