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PRINCIPLE 1. “Biological functionality is multi-level.” https://lnkd.in/eBKWC7d View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE focuses on Denis Nobel’s “Ten Principles”, which debunk Neo-Darwinism and the central dogma of molecular biology. This extraordinary thinker has the ability to synthesize vast amounts of research into pithy and philosophical conclusions. Unafraid to be controversial, and with deep insight, he takes the best of recent thinking and advances it to the next level of synthesis, setting the stage for new investigations to provide data for this iterative process of knowledge. https://lnkd.in/ezwgytQ View in LinkedIn

TRANSPOSON-ENABLED PLASTICITY. "The intriguing parasitic success of mitotic root-knot nematodes in the absence of sex may be partly explained by transposable element-rich composite genomes resulting from multiple allo-polyploidization events and promoting plasticity in the absence of sex." https://lnkd.in/e9RafZt View in LinkedIn

DUAL STATES. Stochasticity (randomness) necessarily coexists with functionality and they exist at different levels. Random mutation followed by natural selection plus targeted functionality generated from random behavior is the coexistence. https://lnkd.in/eBKWC7d View in LinkedIn

TARGETED HYPERMUTATION. Genome reorganization does occur in response to stress by targeted stochastic mutation as in the case of targeted somatic hypermutation in immune cells, where the hypervariable gene region only on immunoglobulin, which mutates hugely (100,000 to 1,000,000 fold change) in response to stress. Imports directionality while using stochasticity. https://lnkd.in/eBKWC7d View in LinkedIn

REDUCTIONISM FAILS. You cannot derive the function of organisms entirely from their molecules, despite a long history of thinking that you could. Does biology generate order from molecular disorder? Perhaps not, suggests Denis Nobel. Life is a process not fully programmed at the molecular level, generating order from disorder. Stochasticity is a key feature of gene expression. Non-genetic heterogeneity of cells in development is more than noise. https://lnkd.in/eBKWC7d View in LinkedIn

HEART OF DARKNESS. “It is only phenotypes that die, and thus selection on works on things it can see like phenotypes. The mechanism of natural selection is that some organisms survive better than others and reproduce more successfully, so you can only say that selection ‘sees’ what can live or die. Can a virus die? At whatever level an organism can live or die is where selection operates. This was Darwin’s theory of natural selection, and that can occur at any level. Richard Dawkins argues incorrectly that it is always genes that are selected for. It is a fundamental mistake.” https://lnkd.in/eBKWC7d View in LinkedIn

BLIND WATCHMAKER. “Was the watchmaker blind?” as Professor Richard Dawkins proposes, where evolution is random mutation followed by natural selection. Blind chance. Evolution has no foresight. Denis Nobel suggests a 21st century viewpoint, where evolution can be directional, organisms can harness stochasticity, with a one-eyed watchmaker responding epigenetically. Defied by unidirectional information flow. https://lnkd.in/eBKWC7d View in LinkedIn

GENES VERSUS CELLS. “In selfish gene theory you have to distinguish between the replicator and the vehicle. There is no such distinction.” https://lnkd.in/eBKWC7d View in LinkedIn

PRINCIPLE 10. “There are many more to be discovered; a genuine ‘theory of biology’ does not yet exist.” https://lnkd.in/eBKWC7d View in LinkedIn