Experimental and Applied Acarology 31: 315–316, 2003.

© 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

Book Review

Hoy, M.A., Insect Molecular Genetics: An Introduction to Principles and

Applications, 2nd edition. Academic Press, San Diego, USA, 2003, xxi+
544 pages, H/B, ISBN 0-12-357031-X. Price US$ 79.95

Molecular biology is revolutionizing virtually every aspect of the study of

insects and other arthropods, including mites, and the rate of discovery con-
tinues to increase. At the time of writing of this new edition of Insect Mo-
lecular Genetics, the Drosophila melanogaster genome had been completely
sequenced. By the time this review appears, several other insect genomes will
have been completed and more are on the way. These genome sequences par-
allel similarly rapid advances in other areas of arthropod biology. Keeping up
with a field moving at such a blazingly fast rate is not easy and is only possible
with a solid background in the basic concepts and methods. Insect Molecular
Genetics is a textbook aimed at upper division undergraduate and beginning
graduate students that provides just such a background. Workers in non-
molecular areas will find it a very useful and relatively painless introduction
to the genetics and molecular biology of arthropods.
As expected from an introductory textbook, Insect Molecular Genetics
begins at the beginning with a basic discussion of DNA, genes and DNA
replication, followed by a discussion of the steps leading from a DNA se-
quence to a protein. More insect-specific material is used to illustrate chro-
mosome structure and function, genetic systems, intracellular symbionts and
embryonic development. The second part of the book gives a quick but ef-
fective tour of the many techniques used in molecular genetics, including the
polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in its many forms, cloning, libraries and
DNA sequencing. These chapters will be especially useful to non-molecular
biologists struggling to understand what their molecular colleagues are talk-
ing about. I personally found the chapter on transformation vectors very help-
ful. The remainder of the book covers ‘Applications in Entomology’, which,
as we would expect from Hoy, also contains some material on mites. Sex
determination and behaviour genetics each receive a chapter, which are fol-
lowed by a 50 page tour of molecular systematics of arthropods. I think many
readers will find this chapter especially useful for its explanations of the many
methods and types of sequences used in molecular systematic studies. Mo-
lecular genetics at the population level is covered with a listing of the many
methods available to uncover genetic variation followed by an extremely brief
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section on analysis – this will not make the reader a population geneticist,
but, as with the other chapters, discussions of case studies, copious reference
lists and pointers to websites will show the way forward. The final chapter
is the most intensely practical and is the subject that provides the motivation
for much work in the field. Pest management through transgenic techniques
applied to both beneficial and pest species is a field with huge potential. Hoy
covers this very well, using many examples and discussing both the technical
and social issues surrounding the use of this technology.
If pressed, I could find many points in Insect Molecular Genetics to quibble
about. This is only natural in a work that covers such a vast range of material
in a brief and accessible format. The production of the book is adequate,
though a few of the figures could have been better reproduced and use of
colour would have enhanced the understandability of many diagrams.
However, I enthusiastically recommend this book to any student or es-
tablished researcher in need of an introduction to the molecular genetics of
arthropods.

Richard H. Thomas
Department of Zoology, The Natural History Museum,
Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK
e-mail: r.thomas@nhm.ac.uk