MOLECULAR BIOLOGY made simple and fun - fourth edition (2010)
http://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Biology-Made-Simple-Fun/dp/1889899046
I HIGHLY recommend this book for anyone who is interested in the epigenetic theory and wants to understand it better or anyone who simply wants to have a better understanding of many of the studies that are posted on this site. Unfortunately, methylation and acetylation aren’t discussed in the book, but it is still well worth the $40 (or less if you buy used) for as much information as there is packed in it. The book is written for non-scientists too, it doesn’t require a scientific knowledge beyond maybe high school science to comprehend the material in the first few chapters and doesn’t get overly complicated as long as you read the chapters in order.
Seriously, take my word for it, these videos are way better to watch if you have a little background on the molecules/structures/processes being depicted .
Here’s a list of chapters for anyone still interested in the book:
- Introduction.
- Bacteria: The Molecular Biologists’s Guinea Pigs
- Basic Genetics
- Required Reading: The Molecular Basis of Heredity
- Duplicating the DNA: Replication.
- Getting the Message Out: Transcription of Genes to Produce Messenger RNA
- Proteins: The Buck Stops Here
- Sex Among the Low-Lifes and Its Exploitation by Molecular Biologists: Gene Transfer in Bacteria
- Messing About with DNA
- Products from Biotechnology
- Genetic Organization in Higher Organisms
- Mutations: Things That Go Bump in the Night
- Inherited Human Disease
- Cancer and Aging
- Down on the Farm: Transgenic Plants and Animals
- Just Do It! Techniques of Molecular Biology
- PCR: The Polymerase Chain Reaction and Its Many Uses
- Whodunit? Forensic Medicine and Molecular Biology
- Gene Creatures, Part I: Viruses, Viroids and Plasmids
- Gene Creatures, Part II: Jumping Genes and Junk DNA
- Biological Warfare
- The Molecular Defense Initiative: Your Immune System at Work
- Genomics and DNA Sequencing
- Molecular Evolution: Memories of “The Way We Were”
- RNA: The Final Frontier
- Classification: Biology for the Neurotic and the Obsessive-Compulsive
- A Brief History of Molecular Biology
- What Was Said - What Was Meant: Understanding a Seminar in Molecular Biology.
- DNA Gets Personal
- Brush Up Your Chemistry
P.S. Sorry for not posting a video, but this article brings up a good point that seems to be forgotten often in discussions concerning methylation:
http://www.aps.anl.gov/Science/Highlights/Content/APS_SCIENCE_20080910.php
“Gene silencing via DNA methylation is critical for normal development and for curbing the runaway cell division that characterizes cancer,” said Peter Preusch, who oversees biophysics grants at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health. “Alterations in methylation patterns are also important for generating embryonic stem-like cells from differentiated cells.”
The article also describes one of the mechanisms involved in transferring epigenetic data from parent cells to daughter cells.
