Aims and Scope of the Series

"Genetics," which has been proud of its tradition since Mendel presented his research results in 1865, initially progressed quite slowly due to simple observational approaches of individuals and groups. However, the discovery of double-stranded DNA by Watson and Crick about 70 years ago triggered rapid progress in life sciences, including genetics, which was primarily conducted using *Escherichia coli* and bacteriophages infecting *E. coli*. Subsequently, genetics has achieved remarkable developments, such as understanding genetic disorders, including cancers, through research on the biogenesis and differentiation of plants and animals.

The two topics of this book series - Human Genetics, and Genomics - will address important areas of advancement in genetics.

Human Genetics: After fundamental genetics, initially studied with the main goal of revealing the functions of individual genes and proteins, genetics expanded from understanding the genetic system itself to understanding many infectious diseases caused by bacteria and viruses. Consequently, human beings are now overcoming infectious diseases by developing medicinal chemicals, including antibiotics and vaccines. However, genetic disorders remain challenging to cure up to now. Nevertheless, even the cure for them, including various cancers, is coming closer to reality due to the rapid progress of human genetics. In this way, the welfare of human life continues to improve, and even longevity, which was once a dream, has been achieved to some extent in recent years.

Genomics: On the other hand, the understanding of the comprehensive interrelationship of whole genes or whole proteins functioning in one organism has become possible now, as research has entered the era of genomics, owing to the rapid progress of base sequence analysis and bioinformatics. The development of genomics has further made it possible to understand the evolutionary processes of organisms through comparative studies among the genomes of many organisms.

This book series will discuss the findings obtained during the advancement of human genetics and genomics. It is also expected that this series will trigger the formation of a better world composed of human beings and all other organisms on Earth through discussions of research results obtained under the development of general genetics.
