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Genetics As Explanation: Limits to the Human Genome Project’ (2006, 2009)

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Genetics As Explanation: Limits to the Human Genome Project’ (2006, 2009) els a0026653.tex V2 - 08/29/2016 4:00 P.M. Page 1 Version 3 a0026653 Genetics as Explanation: Introductory article Article Contents Limits to the Human • Definitions • Metaphors and Programs Genome Project • Metaphors and Expectations • Genome is Not a Simple Program Irun R Cohen, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel • Microbes, Symbiosis and the Holobiont Henri Atlan, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France and Hadas- • Stem Cells Express Multiple Genes • sah University Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel Meaning: Line or Loop? AU:1 • Self-Organisation and Program Sol Efroni, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel • Complexity, Reduction and Emergence • Evolving Genomes AU:2 Based in part on the previous versions of this eLS article ‘Genetics as Explanation: Limits to the Human Genome Project’ (2006, 2009). • The Environment and the Genome • Language Metaphor • Tool and Toolbox Metaphors • Conclusion Online posting date: 14th October 2016 Living organisms are composed of cells and all biological evolution, single organisms, populations of organisms, living cells contain a genome, the organism’s stock species, cells and molecules, heredity, embryonic development, of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The role of the health and disease and life management. These are quite diverse genome has been likened to a computer program subjects, and the people who study them would seem to use the term gene in distinctly different ways. But genetics as a whole that encodes the organism’s development and its is organised by a single unifying principle, the deoxyribonucleic subsequent response to the environment. Thus, the acid (DNA) code; all would agree that the information borne by organism and its fate can be explained by genetics, a gene is linked to particular sequences of DNA. At the chem- the plans written into the sequence of genomic ical level, we can define a gene as a sequence (or combination DNA; the Human Genome Project was devised to of sequences) of DNA that ultimately encodes a protein. The decipher this program. However, it is now clear genome refers to the germline DNA that an organism has inher- that the genome does not directly program the ited from its progenitors. The genome includes DNA genes along organism; the computer program metaphor has with DNA sequences that do not appear to encode proteins. See a0005008 misled us. The genome is only one class of vital also: Gene Structure and Organization; Genome Organiza- a0005001.pub2 information that serves the organism. Indeed, we tion of Vertebrates; Protein Coding a0005017.pub2 now know that the healthy individual human is an Now we can define the Human Genome Project: the genome project is a translation project. Its objective is to translate the ecosystem that lives in symbiosis with hundreds chemical sequence information borne by the genome into the of different species of bacteria – the microbiota. verbal information of human language and thought; the aim is to Metaphorically, the genome can be likened to a translate DNA sequences into words and ideas that can develop toolbox for accomplishing specific tasks. and spread among human minds. What we can manage to do with this information depends on how well we understand the functions of genomic DNA within the organism. Definitions Metaphors and Programs Genetics refers to the structure and function of genes in living organisms. Genes can be defined in various ways and at various Most minds use metaphors to understand and explain; we grasp scales of interest: genes are a concept used by scientists who study the essence of the unfamiliar (or the complex) by seeing its likeness to the familiar (or the simple). Metaphors are not merely eLS subject area: Bioethics & Philosophy literary devices; metaphors, which also include mathematical How to cite: models, can aid precise thinking. Which metaphor is suitable for Cohen, Irun R; Atlan, Henri; and Efroni, Sol (October 2016) explaining the function of the genome? Genetics as Explanation: Limits to the Human Genome Project. Metaphorically, the genome is often likened to a computer In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd: Chichester. program; just as the computer reads and executes the instructions DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0005881.pub3 of its program, the body is proposed to read and execute the eLS © 2016, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. www.els.net 1 els a0026653.tex V2 - 08/29/2016 4:00 P.M. Page 2 Version 3 a0026653 Genetics as Explanation: Limits to the Human Genome Project instructions borne by the genome. The body, from this point of • Introns and exons: A DNA sequence that encodes a protein in view, is mere hardware. The genome is the boss (Figure 1). a multicellular organism is usually discontinuous and is inter- The computer program metaphor is often extended to explain rupted by chains of apparently meaningless DNA (introns); evolution: evolution is thought to improve DNA programs. Diver- the discontinuous segments of the DNA that encode the sification of genomes by random mutation combined with the sequence of the expressed protein are termed exons. The gene selection of the most successful variants (survival of the fittest) transcript [messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)] has to be leads, as it is claimed, to the continuous upgrading of existing spliced together by protein enzymes that cut out the introns DNA programs. The evolution of genomic DNA is automatic but and connect the exons. Thus, most DNA sequences are not costly – the death of the less fit drives the process. See also: intrinsically coherent; introns and exons have to be sorted out. a0005070.pub2 Evolutionary History of the Human Genome • Alternative splicing: Many DNA coding sequences, perhaps as many as a third, can undergo alternative splicing to pro- duce different proteins – the identities of introns and exons in a single chain of DNA can vary; a given segment may Metaphors and Expectations be in intron (and so skipped) in one situation and an exon (and so expressed as part of a protein) in another situation. In The computer program metaphor fosters high expectations of other words, a single DNA sequence, by alternative splicing the Human Genome Project. Theoretically, if you know all the of introns and exons, can give rise to more than one species information borne by a computer program, you can expect to of protein. Moreover, the way the DNA actually gets spliced know how a computer using that program will operate; you can is not governed by the DNA sequence itself; enzymes and understand the computer’s present behaviour and can predict its other proteins actually determine the gene – the spliced DNA future behaviour with a high degree of accuracy. You would even sequence that is expressed in particular circumstances. Thus, be able to repair mistakes in the program, if that program were the information encoded in many DNA sequences is intrinsi- simple enough. cally ambiguous until realised by the actions of proteins on Metaphorically then, if the genome is really like a computer the DNA. program, the genome project will empower us to understand the • Conformational variations: The way a protein functions organism, predict its response to the changing environment and depends greatly on the three-dimensional shape assumed provide a key to the cure of its maladies. Or so many would have by the protein – its conformation. Different conformations wished to believe. of the same sequence of amino acids can expose different Here we shall discuss what a program means to most people positively or negatively charged hydrophilic domains or and then test whether the genome actually fits the bill. We shall hydrophobic domains, each with different arrays of interac- see that the program metaphor is a misleading way to describe tions and functions. The conformation of the protein depends the genome, knowing the genome will not explain the organism. on how the chain of amino acids constituting the protein We will then go on to consider other metaphors for the genome. folds; different folds of the same sequence give rise to dif- ferent functions. The sequence of the protein is encoded by a single DNA sequence, or gene, but the conformation of the Genome is Not a Simple Program protein is determined dynamically by its folding in response to interactions with other proteins in the environment and The Oxford English Dictionary (Draft Revision, 2009) defines other factors, including the pH. Consequently, a single gene a computer program as ‘A series of coded instructions which that gives rise to a single amino acid sequence of a protein when fed into a computer will automatically direct its operation may be said to function in more than one way. in carrying out a specific task. Also in extended use: something • Posttranslational modifications: Moreover, the protein conceived of as encoding and determining a process, esp. genet- encoded by the gene can (and does) undergo chemical ically’. A computer program is usually written intentionally by modifications (enzymatic cleavage, aggregation with other a computer programmer; the DNA program, by contrast, is writ- molecules, phosphorylation, glycosylation, methylation, ten by evolution, without intention. But irrespective of who or binding with molecules such as ubiquitin and so forth) what writes a program, at the very least, a program is a plan to carry out further functions independent of the gene that for a sequence of events. So most people would like a program encoded the protein. The protein glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate to be unambiguous, coherent and definite. The program’s task dehydrogenase first discovered as an enzyme, for example, is should be inherent in the program itself; the information in a pro- now known to have a role in membrane fusion, microtubule gram should be sufficient for the job. A program, like a blueprint, bundling, RNA export, DNA replication and repair, apop- is a type of representation.
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