Month: September 2022

EMERGENT BEHAVIOR. “Of course, all the proteins involved in cardiac rhythm are encoded by the genome, but these alone would not generate rhythm. This is the sense (see above) in which I maintain that there is not a program for cardiac rhythm in the genome. The non-genomic structural elements are also essential. Similar arguments apply, for example, to circadian rhythm and, indeed, to all functions that require cellular structural inheritance as well as genome inheritance.” http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/1/55 View in LinkedIn

ALLELIC SETS. “When neo-Darwinists refer to the ‘genes’ for any particular phenotype on which selection may act, they are not referring to complete protein-coding sequences of DNA, they are really referring to differences between alleles. The ‘gene’ is, therefore, defined as this inheritable difference in phenotype.” http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/1/55 View in LinkedIn

MUTE KNOCKOUTS. “By contrast, the integral view for which I am arguing does not focus on differences. Instead it asks: what are all the functions to which the particular DNA sequence contributes? Indeed, it would not matter whether those functions are ones that result in a different phenotype. Through the existence of multiple back-up mechanisms, many DNA changes, such as knockouts, do not have a phenotypic effect on their own.” http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/1/55 View in LinkedIn

NON-GENOMIC EFFECTS. “As many as 80 per cent of the knockouts in yeast are normally ‘silent’ in this way. Their functionality can be revealed only when the boundary conditions, such as the nutrient environment, are changed.” http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/1/55 View in LinkedIn

EVERYTHING IS CONTEXTUAL. “A difference in DNA sequence may have a wide variety of possible phenotypic effects, including no effect at all, until the boundary conditions are set, including the actions of many other genes, the metabolic and other states of the cell or organism, and the environment in which the organism exists.” http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/1/55 View in LinkedIn

TWO WAY FLOW. “I and my colleagues have expressed many of the ideas briefly outlined here in the form of some principles of systems biology. One of those principles is that, a priori, there is no privileged level of causation in biological systems. Determining the level at which a function is integrated is an empirical question.” http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/1/55 View in LinkedIn

DOGMAS FAIL. “Cardiac rhythm is clearly integrated at the level of the pacemaker sinus node cell, and does not even exist below that level. The principle can be restated in a more precise way by saying that the level at which each function is integrated is at least partly a matter of experimental discovery. There should be no dogmas when it comes to causation in biological systems.” http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/1/55 View in LinkedIn

EPIGENETIC SPANNER IN THE DOGMA. “The induction mechanisms emerge as the embryo interacts with its environment. Morphogenesis is not entirely hard-wired into the genome.” http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/1/55 View in LinkedIn

REDUCTIONISM VERSUS EMERGENCE. “Reference to emergence leads me to a fundamental point about the limits of reductionism. An important motivation towards reductionism is that of reducing complexity.” http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/1/55 View in LinkedIn

REDUCTIONISM. “The idea is that if a phenomenon is too complex to understand at level X then go down to level Y and see, first, whether the interactions at level Y are easier to understand and theorize about, then, second, see whether from that understanding one can automatically understand level X.” http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/1/55 View in LinkedIn