Fundamentals of Molecular Genetics

This is where you stop thinking about genetics as Mendelian crosses and start thinking about it as molecular machinery: how DNA actually gets copied, repaired, recombined, transcribed, and translated at the level of the enzymes and regulatory logic that run the show. Most of the work happens through close reading of Genes XII chapters paired with two midterms, plus presentations, reports, and group exercises where you defend interpretations of real research findings rather than just memorize pathways. It sits on top of introductory genetics and biochemistry and feeds directly into everything downstream in the MBG curriculum — gene expression, biotech, and lab courses all assume you can already reason about replicons, operons, and translation mechanics fluently.