Genes, genomes, and codes: Revisiting some key terms with multiple meanings

Autors/ores

  • Evelyn Fox Keller MIT

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.6.4083

Paraules clau:

code, codescript, central dogma, genetic information, genes and genomes

Resum

Is a genome the full complement of an organism’s genes or of its DNA? Is genetics the study of genes or of heredity? Is the genetic code the mechanism for translating nucleotide sequence to amino acid sequence or to phenotype? Does «genetic information» refer to the sequences coding for proteins or to all DNA sequences? Each of these questions stems from an elision between one, concrete, meaning, and another, open-ended and ambiguous. Such elision invites the illusion that the ambiguity of the open-ended term has been resolved, and by implication, that the gap between actual achievement and promise has been closed. Yet, despite the phenomenal progress molecular biology has made, we remain without an adequate account of the organization of proteins into an organism. 

Descàrregues

Les dades de descàrrega encara no estan disponibles.

Biografia de l'autor/a

Evelyn Fox Keller, MIT

Professor Emerita of History and Philosophy of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA). She is the author of several books, such as The century of the gene (Harvard University Press, 2000), Making sense of life: Explaining biological development with models, metaphors and machines (Harvard University Press, 2002) and The mirage of a space between nature and nurture (Duke University Press, 2010).

Referències

Ball, P. (2013). DNA: Celebrate the unknowns. Nature, 496, 419–420. doi: 10.1038/496419a

Davis, B. D. (1990). The human genome and other initiatives. Science, 249: 342–343.

Doolittle, W. F., & Sapienza, C. (1980). Selfish genes, the phenotype paradigm and genome evolution. Nature, 284, 601–603. doi: 10.1038/284601a0

Gibbs, W. W. (2003). The unseen genome: Gems among the junk. Scientific American, 289, 46–53. doi: 10.1038/scientificamerican1103-46

Keller, E. F. (2000). The century of the gene. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Keller, E. F. (2014). From gene action to reactive genomes. The Journal of Physiology, 592(11), 2423-2429. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.2014.290991

Mattick, J. S. (2004). RNA regulation: A new genetics? Nature Reviews Genetics, 5, 316–323. doi: 10.1038/nrg1321

Mattick, J. S. (2010). RNA as the substrate for epigenome-environment interactions: RNA guidance of epigenetic processes and the expansion of RNA editing in animals underpins development, phenotypic plasticity, learning, and cognition. Bioessay, 32, 548–552. doi: 10.1002/bies.201000028

Ohno, S. (1972). So much “junk” DNA in our genome. Brookhaven Symposium in Biology, 23, 336–370.

Orgel, L. E., & Crick, F. H. (1980). Selfish DNA: The ultimate parasite. Nature, 284(5757), 604–607. doi: 10.1038/284604a0

Oxford English Dictionary. (n.d.). Code. In F. McPherson (Ed.) Oxford English dictionary online. Retrieved from http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/35578?rskey=ppAXGm&result=1#eid

Schrödinger, E. (1944). What is life? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

The ENCODE Project Consortium. (2007). Identification and analysis of functional elements in 1 % of the human genome by the ENCODE pilot project. Nature, 447, 799–816. doi: 10.1038/nature05874

The International HapMap Consortium. (2003). The International HapMap Project. Nature, 426, 789-796.

The International HapMap Consortium. (2004). Integrating ethics and science in the International HapMap Project. Nature Reviews Genetics, 5, 467–475. doi: 10.1038/nrg1351

Weinberg, R. A. (1991). The human genome initiative. There are two large questions. The FASEB Journal, 5, 78.

Descàrregues

Publicades

2016-04-15

Com citar

Fox Keller, E. (2016). Genes, genomes, and codes: Revisiting some key terms with multiple meanings. Metode Science Studies Jornal, (6), 135–141. https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.6.4083
Metrics
Views/Downloads
  • Resum
    957
  • PDF
    415

Número

Articles en línia - Abril 2015

Secció

Retòrica de la ciència

Llicència

Tots els documents inclosos en OJS són d'accés lliure i propietat dels seus autors.

Els autors que publiquen en aquesta revista estan d'acord amb els següents termes:

    1. Els autors conserven els drets d'autor i garanteixen a la revista el dret a la primera publicació del treball, llicenciat baix una llicència de Reconeixement-NoComercial-SenseObraDerivada 4.0 Internacional de Creative Commons, que permet a altres compartir el treball amb un reconeixement de l'autoria del treball i citant la publicació inicial en aquesta revista.
    2. Es permet i s'anima els autors a difondre la versió definitiva dels seus treballs electrònicament a través de pàgines personals i institucionals (repositoris institucionals, pàgines web personals o perfils a xarxes professionals o acadèmiques) una vegada publicat el treball.

Metrics

Articles similars

<< < > >> 

També podeu iniciar una cerca avançada per similitud per a aquest article.