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MULTIFACTORIAL CONSEQUENCES. "A difference in hair color between two individuals could be due in some cases to their genetic difference. We note, however, that not all phenotypic changes can be attributed to genetic changes. A difference in hair color could also be caused by non-genetic factors such as age, intensity of solar radiation or hair dyeing, or by a combination of both genetic and non-genetic differences." https://lnkd.in/d3vzXnd View in LinkedIn

ONLY A TOOL. "Nevertheless, genetic reductionism can be perfectly appropriate for identifying genetic loci where a change causes a phenotypic difference." https://lnkd.in/d3vzXnd View in LinkedIn

AN INTEGRATED WHOLE. "Thus, the genetic reductionist approach, which only explores a few genetic parameters among the variety of causal factors, is vain to fully address the broad question of what makes hair brown, of what brings forth a particular biological structure, or process in its entirety." https://lnkd.in/d3vzXnd View in LinkedIn

A SYMPHONY NOT A SOLIST. "For example, brown hair pigmentation in one human being is not just a product of the genes coding for pigment synthesizing enzymes but also of the presence of cells producing pigments of relevant substrate molecules (such as tyrosine for melanin), and of the amount of received sun light." https://lnkd.in/d3vzXnd View in LinkedIn

THE TRUISM. "Genes need a cellular environment, the combined action of multiple other genes, as well as certain physico-chemical conditions to have an observable effect on organisms." https://lnkd.in/d3vzXnd View in LinkedIn

THE FALSISM. "In fact, a gene alone can neither cause an observable phenotypic trait, nor can it be necessary and sufficient to the emergence of observable characteristics." https://lnkd.in/d3vzXnd View in LinkedIn

PARASITE DISPARITY. "In contrast, life history and genomic characteristics such as mating system, parasitism, GC content, and RNAi pathways, have been suggested to account for the startling disparity of TE loads in different species." (TE = transposable elements). https://lnkd.in/drMDPh6 View in LinkedIn

CONSEQUENCES OF SURPRISES. "Nowadays, one should not be surprised that a piece of DNA associated with a complex wing color pattern in one Heliconius butterfly species provides similar wings and collective protection from the same predators when introduced into the genome of other butterflies." https://lnkd.in/d3vzXnd View in LinkedIn

PURIFYING SELECTION. "In natural selection, negative selection or purifying selection is the selective removal of alleles that are deleterious. This can result in stabilizing selection through the purging of deleterious variations that arise. Purging of deleterious alleles can be achieved on the population genetics level, with as little as a single point mutation being the unit of selection. In such a case, carriers of the harmful point mutation have fewer offspring each generation, reducing the frequency of the mutation in the gene pool." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_selection_(natural_selection) View in LinkedIn

HUNDREDS OF BIG SURPRISES. "A more dramatic example is the recent evolution of a toxin resistance in three species that diverged more than 500 million years ago – a clam, a snake and a pufferfish – via the same amino acid substitution in a conserved gene. Such striking patterns of genetic repetition have now been found for more than 100 genes in animals and plants." https://lnkd.in/d3vzXnd View in LinkedIn