Abstract
Every living organism inherits the information it needs to develop from a microscopic speck into a fully formed member of its own species, and then passes this on to its offspring so they can do the same. The information the genes convey is encoded in the sequence in which the nucleotides are arranged on the DNA molecules, for this specifies the sequence in which various amino acids become linked to form particular proteins. The information contained in the genome is necessary, but not sufficient, for creating an organism, since growth and development also depend on feedback from the milieu in which they take place. The interaction between nature and nurture is really an interaction between inherited and acquired information, for development is an information-driven process, not a physically driven one.
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Notes
- 1.
Notes
Gould and Lewontin (1979) point out that there are constraints on the evolutionary adaptations that can occur because inherited traits are not independent units that can change without affecting other aspects of an organism’s structure or function. Nor are all evolutionary changes adaptive, since some are unavoidable by-products of genetic changes that have been selected for unrelated reasons. As Jablonka and Lamb (2005) note, the genome is like a miniature ecological system in which changes in one gene affect the functioning of others. This is why a gene that has a certain effect in one species may have a different effect in another, especially in sexually reproducing species. Natural selection selects the entire genomes of “fit” individuals, not just the particular genes that give them a reproductive advantage.
- 2.
Trying to assess the relative contributions of nature and nurture to the development of particular traits in individuals is generally futile, since neither can have an effect without the other. It is possible, however, to make a statistical estimate of the likely contribution of certain genes to certain physical characteristics in a given population. The National Cancer Institute, for instance, estimates that U.S. women who have inherited abnormal BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes have about a 60% lifetime chance of developing breast cancer, compared to a 12% risk in women who do not have these mutations (http://www.cancer.gov). The normal BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes help suppress tumor growth by repairing damaged DNA sequences, something the abnormal forms are apparently unable to do.
- 3.
A more detailed account of molecular genetics is available at Gardel et al. (2004).
- 4.
There does not appear to be any clear relationship between the number of chromosomes or genes a species has and its degree of complexity. The number of different proteins an organism can make can be greater than the number of genes it has, since some genes carry the code for making several different proteins. Hobert (2008) believes that the complexity of a particular organism may be related to the complexity of the ways in which the nonprotein coding parts of its DNA regulate the expression of its designated genes.
- 5.
Evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) is a discipline formed by linking developmental and evolutionary biology. Evo-devo compares the developmental processes of different animals and plants, studies how these processes evolved, and attempts to determine the ancestral relationships between them. It explores the molecular and genetic processes that regulate embryonic development and how their modification can lead to the emergence of novel features and new species (Carroll 2005).
- 6.
In an illustrative study, Halder et al. (1995) transferred the eyeless gene that is normally involved in eye development in mice into a fruit fly (Drosophila), and then activated it in one of its legs. Amazingly, although an eye developed at the new site, it was a fruit fly eye, not a mouse one. This suggests that the same gene conveys information about where to place an eye in both species, but not what eye to place there.
- 7.
The parts of the genome that are the same for every member of a species are responsible for the between-species aspects of evolution since they contribute to the relative fitness of species that compete with or prey on one another.
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Reading, A. (2011). Genetic Messages. In: Meaningful Information. SpringerBriefs in Biology, vol 1. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0158-2_13
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