Journal of Heredity 2004:95(1)
© 2004 The American Genetic Association 95:89-90
Book Review |
Tears of the Cheetah
Stephen J. O'Brien.St. Martin's Press, New York. 2003.
This fascinating tale recounts much of Stephen O'Brien's numerous professional exploits with animals and viruses, but more importantly, it deals with his efforts to understand the adaptation to pathogens as it may be deciphered from exploring the current genomes of man and animals. The book is exceptionally easy to read and Ernst Mayr, who wrote the Foreword, is absolutely right when he said "... that one can hardly lay this book down."
It is hard to decide whether the book was written for semiprofessionals or for the general public. Although there is a fair amount of technical material, such as names of specific genes, alleles, major histocompatibility complexes, etc.—all of which are detailed in a short appendix—the writing is so crisp and fluid that while perhaps most educated people would not totally understand the complex organization of the genome, they would surely profit from reading about it because it is so well explained.
Considering that the author started out as a Drosophila geneticist, it is remarkable how much innovation he has brought to our understanding of wild animals because of his relentless curiosity. What comes through most clearly is that Steve is not satisfied with superficial explanations of unknown phenomena, but that he seeks a full understanding of a problem. Many of us, especially those associated with the zoo world, are well aware of his studies of cheetahs and lions, his inquiries of orangutan genetics, and his interest in pandas, but less well known perhaps are his research efforts to explain the variable frequencies of genes that protect against damage from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and from scourges of the past. The sequence of these studies is told in masterful detail and with great readability.
The book comprises 14 chapters and begins in California with Murray Gardner's study of the resistance acquired by wild mice against a potentially lethal retrovirus. The author takes us next to Africa where cheetahs are having problems with reproduction. David Wildt and Mitch Bush, investigators from the National Zoo and well-known personalities to the entire zoo community, became closely allied with O'Brien's laboratory to investigate the problem. The identification of cheetahs' sparse genetic variability, their poor sperm morphology, and ultimately their susceptibility to lethal virus infection because of this impoverished genetic breadth, I conjecture, is what led Steve to his ultimate ambition to better understand the mechanism of genetic resistance to pathogens. It is equally likely that it is the beauty of the cheetah what made him become so enamored with felines in general. Next he explores the details of the viral causes of massive mortalities in Serengeti lions and then gradually shifts his writing to conservation issues. They are perhaps best and superbly detailed in the chapter on the Florida panther. What should be done with a dubious "sub"-species when the regulations only consider "species" protection? Should neighboring and formerly integrated subspecies be introduced to bolster a vanishing breed? The two chapters that provide us with the details of the panther saga are outstanding, as they clearly bring into focus the conflicts of conservation programs with society at large, with the press, and with the law. The resolution of this conundrum and how it was achieved are worthy of wide dissemination because these conflicts will only increase in the future. The study of the humpback whale genotype provides a fresh interlude in an otherwise continuous tale and it also provides some details of the widely known study by Baker and Palumbi of Japanese whale meat that revealed continued harvesting of protected and endangered whales by several countries. Likewise, the genetic studies of orangutans that ultimately showed the Bornean and Sumatran apes to be more properly classified as species rather than subspecies are expertly told.
Next we learn of the genetic study that clearly settles once and for all (we think) that the panda is a bear and not a raccoon; it brings us to China and the author's continued relationship with their panda experts. O'Brien sets the stage with fine background information on the locale and people, and then he quickly comes to the point for the reasons for the scientific study and how it was accomplished. The people that he meets, the circumstances of travel and other details are told with a charming style.
But all of this merely leads us to Steve's real and current ambition, that is, to better understand pathogen-genome interactions. There is a fascinating interlude that describes in great detail his laboratory's involvement in a murder trial on Prince Edwards Island. At issue was whether the hair of a cat found in the presumed murderer's jacket precisely matched that of his cat at home. It required an extraordinary effort of cat gene exploration and careful handling of materials that could be a précis for anyone who might be asked to serve in a similar capacity.
The last few chapters are perhaps the most current and urgent descriptions of his laboratory's efforts—how is it that some species (cheetah, lion, mice, all about which he has carefully laid the background) have changed their genotypes over time to allow some to be resistant to various specific infections? What are the real reasons for the impoverished cheetah genetic diversity? Why is it that some people escape the ravages of an HIV infection, and why are these genotypes more numerous in Scandinavia and absent in Africa? The pursuit of those questions is what makes this book extraordinary and so fascinating to read. It is here where Steve's style and meticulous attention to detail and the description of the evolution of our progress in genetics are especially noteworthy. It is his credo that, by fully unraveling the genome, it will ultimately be possible to use that information as a precise blueprint of our ancestral history, and also that of most animals. Brief interludes with gene therapy failures and their possible future make many important points in that journey.
Of course, it would not be proper to criticize a book by the editor of this journal, and you may thus be suspect of this review. But look at it and convince yourself. It really is a great read and should be widely disseminated so as to lead the public to a better understanding of current genetic efforts. But there is one last word I want to say about the book because it impressed me so much. And that is how gracious the author is to the many students who have carried out most of the research he describes here. True, he may have led them to undertake the laboratory effort, but he comes through with a genuine appreciation as he describes them in generous terms. Not bad for one who started out just looking at flies!
Department of Pathology UCSD Medical Center San Diego, CA 92103
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||