The authors have developed a text that reflects the directions genetics is taking as it heads into the 21st century. This perspective embraces five major themes including the central importance of the genome, as opposed to the action of individual genes.

Mendel's breakthrough - patterns, particles, and principles of heredity; extension to Mendel for single-gene inheritance; the chromosome theory of inheritance; linkage, recombination, and the mapping of genes on chromosomes; DNA - how the molecule of heredity carries, replicates, and recombines information; anatomy and function of a gene - dissection through mutation; gene expression - the flow of genetic information from DNA via RNA to protein; DNA at high resolution - use of DNA cloning, PCR, and hybridization as the tools of genetic analysis; the direct detection of genotype; the mapping and analysis of genomes; the eukaryotic chromosome - an organelle for packaging and managing DNA; chromosomal rearrangements and changes in chromosome number reshape eukaryotic genomes; the prokaryotic chromosome - genetic analysis in bacteria; the chromosomes of organelles outside the nucleus exhibit non-Mendelian patterns of inheritance; gene regulation in prokaryotes; gene regulation in eukaryotes; cell-cycle regulation and the genetics of cancer; saccharomyces cerevisiae - a genetic portrait of yeast; arabidopsis thaliana - genetic portrait of a model plant; caenorhabditis elegans - genetic portrait of a simple multicellular animal; drosophila melanogaster - genetic portrait of the fruit fly; mus musculus - a genetic portrait of the house mouse; the genetic analysis of populations and how they evolve; evolution at the molecular level.