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The study of modern genetics is really a study of the language
of the cell, a special language found in deoxyribonucleic
acid—DNA. In this chapter we shall investigate the structure
and function of this molecule and explore how it is copied, how its language
is interpreted into useful cell products, how it is controlled, how
it changes, how it is transferred from one cell to another, and its applications
in microbial genetics.
The search for the structure of the genetic material is one of the
most compelling stories in biology. See Historical Highlights 9.1 for a
short history of this saga.
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