How to Understand the Gene in the Twenty-First Century?

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged in the literature on philosophy of biology and, more recently, among biologists themselves that the gene concept is currently in crisis. This crisis concerns the so-called ''classical molecular concept'', according to which a gene is a DNA segment encoding one functional product, which can be either a RNA molecule or a polypeptide. In this paper, we first describe three categories of anomalies that challenge this way of understanding genes. Then, we discuss proposals for revising the gene concept so as to accommodate the increasingly known complexity of genomic architecture and dynamics. Our intention is to provide an informative overview of recent proposals concerning how we should conceive of genes, which are probably not very familiar to many science educators and teachers, but can bring relevant contributions to genetics teaching, in particular, to a more critical treatment of genes and their role in living systems.

Exploring Relationships Among Belief in Genetic Determinism, Genetics Knowledge, and Social Factors

“…For example, genes are overlapping and can give rise to several different products (making the proteome qualitatively different from the genome), and there is no obvious relation between the amount of DNA in an organism and its morphological or behavioral complexity (for discussion, see, for example, El-Hani 2007;Falk 2014;Gericke and Hagberg 2007;Gericke and Smith 2014;Meyer et al 2011;Portin 2009). Gene-D is not Bcontrolling^or Bpurposively acting^in a specific direction but is a component among others within biochemical, physiological, developmental processes.…”

Young Adults’ Belief in Genetic Determinism, and Knowledge and Attitudes towards Modern Genetics and Genomics: The PUGGS Questionnaire

“…Moreover, epigenetic and environmental factors are as a rule involved in the development of phenotypes and phenotypic differences. If we consider, say, the textbook example of a “gene for blue eyes”, we will see that it corresponds, in fact, to a disjunction of alleles that can be responsible for a decrease of the pigmentation in the iris, and a disjunction is a logical expression, not a material entity to which a concept can refer [29]. This does not deny, however, the usefulness of the “gene for” concept: It helps us understand the results of a crossing between a brown-eyed father and a blue-eyed mother, and we can readily use pedigree analysis, accompanied by the apt simplification of assuming genes that determine the presence of brown or blue eyes.…”

“…In the last two decades, however, research in genetics has evolved into genomics and our understanding of genes and genomes and how they relate to development, phenotypic traits, cell physiology, among other features, has radically changed [29, 37–40]. It seems to be under way a general shift within the scientific community from a more deterministic to a more probabilistic understanding of the relationship between genes and traits (Fig 1).…”

Blood and Bones: The Influence of the Mass Media on Australian Primary School Children’s Understandings of Genes and DNA

“…We know that grasping the nature of the relationship between genes and DNA and their basic functions in living things is foundational, yet not easy even for teachers (Venville and Donovan 2005a). The concept of the gene itself is evolving (Meyer, Bomfim and El-Hani 2011;Venville and Donovan 2005b).…”