Human Chromosome Methodology fills the need for an authoritative and up-to-date treatise which would serve as a text and reference for advances in human cytogenetics. The book includes readily comprehensible chapters that cover each phase of laboratory investigation from the preparation of materials for sex chromatin and chromosome techniques for bone marrow, blood, skin, and gonadal specimens to the subject of autoradiography and chromosome identification. Included also are guides to microscopy and photomicrography as well as an up-to-date treatment of chromosomes in disease. It is hoped that this volume will serve as an adequate guide to laboratory techniques and their applications for research workers, students of genetics, and members of the medical profession involved in setting up a laboratory of cytogenetics.

Chromosomes, as the genetic vehicles, provide the basic material for a large proportion of genetic investigations, from the construction of gene maps and models of chromosome organization, to the inves tigation of gene function and dysfunction. The study of chromosomes has developed in parallel with other aspects of molecular genetics, beginning with the first preparations of chromosomes from animal cells, through the development of banding techniques, which permitted the unequivocal identification of each chromosome in a karyotype, to the present analytical methods of molecular cytogenetics. Although some of these techniques have been in use for many years, and can be learned relatively easily, most published scientific reports—as a result of pressure on space from editors, and the response to that pressure by authors—contain little in the way of technical detail, and thus are rarely adequate for a researcher hoping to find all the necessary information to embark on a method from scratch. A new user needs not only a detailed description of the methods, but also some help with problem solving and sorting out the difficulties en countered in handling any biological system. This was the require ment to which the series Methods in Molecular Biology is addressed, and Chromosome Analysis Protocols forms a part of this series.

This new edition now titled “Human Chromosome Variation: Heteromorphism, Polymorphism and Pathogenesis” provides the reader with an up-to-date overview of microarrays, fragile sites, copy number variations and whole genome sequencing. Greatly expanding the discussion of microarray analysis in the previous edition of the book, are new chapters on microarray and genomic analysis, plus comprehensive tables on the subtle microdeletions and microduplications that are found on each chromosome, including 235 recurring copy number variants that are associated with well-established or emerging chromosomal syndromes. The current edition features concise information on cytogenetic methods and applications, extending these discussions to DNA analysis and genome sequencing. Sections on euchromatin, heterochromatin, FISH pattern, fragile site, copy number, and DNA sequence variation are integrated with actual clinical examples from cytogenetic laboratories and from clinical practice. The principles that allow for the distinction between benign chromosome / DNA variation and pathogenic heteromorphisms / polymorphisms are discussed and include references to the latest organizational guidelines and genomic or population databases. The two previous incarnations of this book: the ‘Atlas of Human Chromosome Heteromorphism’, and ‘Human Chromosome Variation: Heteromorphism and Polymorphism’ have been standard reference works in most cytogenetic laboratories, used by laboratory directors and clinicians all around the world. While widely used sections from the previous edition on cytogenetic technologies and heteromorphisms are retained intact the present volume adds extensive material on copy number variations (polymorphisms detected by microarray analysis), fragile sites in disease and cancer, and practical views on interpreting emerging technologies, including whole exome sequencing. This book should be of interest to clinicians, technicians and students who are or will be exposed to DNA and/or chromosome analysis and the data derived from these continuously developing techniques. This fully updated book volume will bring the reader up to speed on the latest technologies, their applications, benefits and drawbacks and as such, is a must read for anyone with an interest in DNA and chromosome analysis and the distinction between benign variation and pathogenic mistakes.

This volume was originally intended to be an English translation of the book MetllOden in der medizinischen Cytogenetik, published in 1970. Just about then, however, a number of new techniques were introduced in human cytogenetics and soon acquired the utmost importance, parti cularly in clinical diagnosis, so that the English edition had to be con siderably enlarged. As a result, there are now twelve chapters instead of eight, and two additional authors have been called upon, Dr. KRONE and Dr. SCHNEDL. In addition to the up-to-date presentation of con ventional methods of cell culture and techniques for the preparation and identification of human chromosomes, this text covers the various tech niques of producing banding patterns and applying them in chromo some identification. Further, it deals with the culture of amniotic fluid cells and gives instructions for handling tissue-culture cells for bio chemical analysis; it thus meets the ever-increasing requirements of a modern cell-culture laboratory. To paraphrase the aims of this book, we quote part of the preface to the German edition: "It was intended to collect the various methods so as to make them accessible for laboratory use. Furthermore, it is hoped that the reader faced with current research problems will be stimulated to modify and supplement the techniques described, instead of merely applying them automatically. In a rapidly developing field, some methods are still preliminary, and no final presentation seems possible.

Molecular Structure of Human Chromosomes is an authoritative guide to genetics, focusing on human genome. This reference compiles contributions covering available knowledge on human genome structure and organization, which the previous researches fail to encompass. This text provides a comprehensive discussion of cytogenetic techniques, emphasizing their application to human genome studies and examinations. The book is divided into nine chapters. It explains the molecular organization and function of the human genome and the DNA sequences in man. It also discusses the localization of human gene by in situ hybridization and the approaches to gene mapping. The book describes the structure of the chromosomes and the trends in chromosome techniques; banding and polymorphism; and repetitive DNA and primate evolution. Various practitioners in genetics and biology will find this book a good reference. Students and novices in these fields will also find this book an excellent guide.