What are genes "for" or where are traits "from"? What is the question?
What are genes "for" or where are traits "from"? What is the question?
复制标题
DOI：
10.1002/bies.200800133
复制
发表时间：
2009-02-01
期刊：
影响因子：
4
通讯作者：
Weiss, Kenneth M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Buchanan, Anne V.;Sholtis, Samuel;Weiss, Kenneth M.
至少一个世纪以来，人们已经知道多种因素在复杂性状的形成中发挥了作用，然而，追溯到孟德尔的观点仍然普遍存在，即这些性状是有基因的。在这篇文章中，我们说明了孟德尔模型如何默许了我们可以通过将复杂性简化为可列举的基因来解释复杂性的想法。通过这种方法，许多与简单和复杂性状有关的基因已经被识别出来。但生物学特征的遗传结构，或它们是如何形成的，在很大程度上仍然是未知的。从本质上讲，这反映了作为当前科学“运作方式”的简化论与对复杂特征本质的新兴认识之间的紧张关系。最近对系统生物学作为一种统一方法的兴趣表明，人们重新意识到对复杂特征的复杂性的接受，尽管人们忍不住要用类似于简化论的“网络”概念来取代“基因思维”。这两种方法都隐含地混合了遗传学中变异和不变的概念。甚至最基本的问题也是不清楚的：一个人需要知道什么才能“理解”复杂特征的遗传基础？需要关于如何处理生物复杂性的新的可操作性的想法。
For at least a century it has been known that multiple factors play a role in the development of complex traits, and yet the notion that there are genes "for" such traits, which traces back to Mendel, is still widespread. In thiS paper, we illustrate how the Mendelian model has tacitly encouraged the idea that we can explain complexity by reducing it to enumerable genes. By this approach many genes associated with simple as well as complex traits have been identified. But the genetic architecture of biological traits, or how they are made, remains largely unknown. In essence, this reflects the tension between reductionism as the current "modus operandi" of science, and the emerging knowledge of the nature of complex traits. Recent interest in systems biology as a unifying approach indicates a reawakened acceptance of the complexity of complex traits, though the temptation is to replace "gene for" thinking by comparably reductionistic "network for" concepts. Both approaches implicitly mix concepts of variants and invariants in genetics. Even the basic question is unclear: what does one need to know to "understand" the genetic basis of complex traits? New operational ideas about how to deal with biological complexity are needed.