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What is a gene for?

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A Book Symposium to this article was published on 16 December 2015

Hence the talk of ‘‘genes for any particular character” ought to be omitted, even in cases where no danger of confusion seems to exist. (Johannsen 1911).

Abstract

The word “gene” means different things to different people, and can even be used in multiple ways by the same individual. In this review, I follow a particular thread running through Griffith and Stotz’s “Genetics and Philosophy: an introduction”, which is the way that methods of investigation influence the way we define the concept of “gene”, from nineteen century breeding experiments to twenty-first century big data bioinformatics. These different views lead to a set of gene concepts, which only partially overlap each other, each of which picks up on a different part of gene behaviour, function or scientific utility. This plurality of concepts carries over to the use of the concept of “information” in biology, where the non-overlapping concepts can be connected to whether you view the genome as a blueprint for development, a response to environmental triggers, an engine of heritability, or a document of history.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks to Brett Calcott, Kim Sterelny, Paul Griffiths, Karola Stotz and Emma Day for their feedback, and to Silo Kingston for providing an inspirational environment.

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  1. Macreovolution and Macroecology, Evolution Ecology and Genetics, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 0200, Australia

    Lindell Bromham

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Correspondence to Lindell Bromham.

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Bromham, L. What is a gene for?. Biol Philos 31, 103–123 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-014-9472-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-014-9472-9

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