Color Atlas of Genetics

to date, on imprinting and uniparental disomy. Dia-grams to review the concepts of imprinting as it relatesto specific conditions, such as Prader-Willi, Angelmansyndrome, and Wilm’s tumor would have been helpful.This is a very complicated concept, which many non-genetics professionals find perplexing. The last chapteris 17 and gives a general review on genetics counseling.This does give a reasonable overview on what a geneticcounselor may do. It was slanted toward the role of agenetic counselor as opposed to a medical or clinicalgeneticist. The various roles of a clinical geneticist anda genetic counselor were not adequately clarified.

Overall, the references are certainly appropriate. Thelatest techniques were reviewed and it was certainlyup-to-date on what is known, including, e.g., clinicalfeatures associated with uniparental disomy of the

different chromosomes. The figures and tables werecertainly appropriate. My only criticism is that thereshould have been more of these in the various chapters,as I designated. I think this book is a great resource. Itdoes a very complete job in reviewing a vast and rapidlyemerging field. The chapter on the latest techniquesdemystified these new techniques very well. I do think,however, the target audience would be people in thefield, especially students. I do not think that it isnecessarily geared toward a general healthcare pro-vider.

JOAN M. STOLER, M.D.Genetics and Teratology UnitMassachusetts General HospitalBoston, Massachusetts

COLOR ATLAS OF GENETICS.By Eberhard Passarge.

Thieme Medical Publishers Inc., New York, NY 1995.411 pp., 174 color plates by Jurgen Wirth.

This is an amazing little book with clear detailedillustrations. For each topic there is a brief but detailedsynopsis (usually followed by a few key references) onone page with a complementary illustration on theopposite page. The illustrations consist of diagrams,tables, and photographs. The topics encompass thewhole field of Genetics including molecular genetics,prokaryotic cells and viruses, eukaryotic cells, mitochon-dria, formal genetics (including Mendelian traits, link-age, recombination, Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, con-sanguinity, polymorphisms, and gene distribution),chromosomes, and gene expression. There is also alarge section entitled ‘‘Genetics and Medicine’’ whichincludes sub-sections on transmembrane signals, genes

for embryonic development, the immune system, growthfactors and origin of tumors, oxygen and electrontransport, lysosomes, protease inhibitors, coagulationfactors, pharmacogenetics, collagen, and cyto-skeletalproteins. Each subsection includes a description at themolecular level plus a synopsis of the related humandiseases. For example, in the section on ‘‘Growth factorsand origin of tumors,’’ there is a detailed description ofvarious growth factors and their mechanism of actionfollowed by human diseases which are caused by muta-tions in growth factors or their receptors.

This is a great review book for busy physicians orstudents who want a brief (but encompassing) overviewof Genetics. It is also a good resource book for itsillustrations.

JOAN M. STOLER, M.D.,Genetics and Teratology UnitMassachusetts General HospitalBoston, Massachusetts

BOOK REVIEWS 323