本書屬於中國科學院推薦的研究生用原版教材。作者為美國著名分子生物學傢Robert F.Weaver。全書詳盡地從分子水平上闡述瞭基因及其活動，包括瞭轉錄、翻譯、DNA復製、重組和轉座等。在這次的新版中又新增瞭基因組學等重要內容。本書的特色在於理論與實驗技術相結閤，並有大量的背景資料，使讀者能夠擴大進一步閱讀的範圍。該書文字清晰、簡練、準確，非常有利於讀者直接掌握最新的專業知識和提高外語能力。

本書還可供生命科學相關專業的研究生、科研和教學人員參考。

Rob Weaver was born in Topeka, Kansas, and grew up in Arlington, Virginia. He received his bachelor's degree in chemistry from The College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, in 1964. He earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry at Duke University in 1969, then spent two years doing postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco, where he studied the structure of eukaryotic RNA polymerases with William J. Rutter.

He joined the faculty of the University of Kansas as an assistant professor of biochemistry in 1971, was promoted to associate professor, then to full professor in 1981. In 1984, he became chair of the Department of Biochemistry, and served in that capacity until he was named Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 1995.

Dean Weaver is the divisional dean for the science and mathematics departments within the College, which includes supervising 15 different departments and programs. As a professor of biochemistry, he teaches courses in introductory molecular biology and the molecular biology of cancer. He directs a research laboratory in which undergraduates and graduate students participate in research on the molecular biology of a baculovirus that infects caterpillars.

Dean Weaver is the author of many scientific papers resulting from research funded by the national Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the American Cancer Society. He has also co-authored two genetics textbooks and two articles on molecular biology in the National Geographic Magazine. He has spent two years performing research in European Laboratories as an American Cancer Society Research Scholar, one year in Zurich, Switzerland, and one year in Oxford, England.