Abstract
The perspective presented here is that modern genetics is at a similar stage of development as were early formulations of quantum mechanics theory in the 1920s and that in 2010 we are at the dawn of a new revolution in genetics that promises to enrich and deepen our understanding of the gene and the genome. The interrelationships and interdependence of two views of the gene – the molecular biological view and the epigenetic view – are explored, and it is argued that the classical molecular biological view is incomplete without incorporation of the epigenetic perspective and that in a sense the molecular biological view has been evolving to include the epigenetic view. Intriguingly, this evolution of the molecular view toward the broader and more inclusive epigenetic view of the gene has an intriguing, if not precise, parallel in the evolution of concepts of atomic physics from Newtonian mechanics to quantum mechanics that are interesting to consider.
Highlights
The perspective presented here is that modern genetics is at a similar stage of development as were early formulations of quantum mechanics theory in the 1920s and that in 2010 we are at the dawn of a new revolution in genetics that promises to enrich and deepen our understanding of the gene and the genome
Quantum mechanics was certainly at the core of Schrödinger’s speculations on the nature of the gene.“What is Life?”offered a fresh perspective on biology that inspired the new “molecular biologists,” many of whom had been trained as physical scientists, especially crystallographers and physical chemists
This was the dawn of the great molecular biology revolution that led to a vast increase in our understanding of genes and genomes and established the fundamental nature of the gene as a nucleic acid molecule comprised of a string of distinct nucleotide bases whose sequence normally specifies a gene product which can effect or influence the expression of phenotype during growth and development
Summary
The perspective presented here is that modern genetics is at a similar stage of development as were early formulations of quantum mechanics theory in the 1920s and that in 2010 we are at the dawn of a new revolution in genetics that promises to enrich and deepen our understanding of the gene and the genome.
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