Abstract
Definitions of the term ‘gene’ typically superimpose molecular genetics onto Mendelism. What emerges are persistent attempts to regard the gene as a ‘unit’ of structure and/or function, language that creates multiple meanings for the term and fails to acknowledge the diversity of gene architecture. I argue that coherence at the molecular level requires abandonment of the classical unit concept and recognition that a gene is constructed from an assemblage of domains. Hence, a domain set (1) conforms more closely to empirical evidence for genetic organization of DNA regions capable of transcription and (2) has ontological properties lacking in the traditional unit definition.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adelman, J. P., C. T. Bond, J. Douglass, and E. Herbert: 1987, ‘Two Mammalian Genes Transcribed from Opposite Strands of the Same DNA Locus’, Science 235, 1514–1518.
Benzer, S.: 1957, ‘The Elementary Units of Heredity’, in The Chemical Basis of Heredity, Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, pp. 70–93.
Bonner, D. M.: 1965, ‘Gene-enzyme Relationships’, in S. J. Geerts (ed.), Gene Today, Vol. 2, Pergamon Press, Oxford, pp. 141–149.
Breathnach, R. and P. Chambon: 1981, ‘Organization and Expression of Eucaryotic Split Genes Coding for Proteins’, Annual Review of Biochemistry 50, 349–383.
Bridges, C.: 1936, ‘The Bar “Gene” a Duplication’, Science 83, 210–211.
Castle, W. E.: 1919, ‘Piebald Rats and the Theory of Genes’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 5, 126–130.
Chen, C., T. Malone, S. K. Beckendorf, and R. L. Davis: 1987, ‘At Least Two Genes Reside within a Large Intron of the Dunce Gene of Drosophila’, Nature 329, 721–724.
Edlund, T., M. D. Walker, W. J. Barr, and W. J. Rutter: 1985, ‘Cell-Specific Expressions of the Rat Insulin Gene: Evidence for Role of Two Distinct 5′ Flanking Elements’, Science 230, 912–916.
Evans, M. J. and R. C. Scarpulla: 1988, ‘Both Upstream and Intron Sequence Elements Are Required for Elevated Expression of the Rat Somatic Cytochrome c Gene in COS-1 Cells’, Molecular and Cellular Biology 8, 35–41.
Falk, R.: 1986, ‘What Is a Gene?’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 17, 133–173.
Fogle, T.: 1987, ‘The Phenotypic Deception: Influences of Classical Genetics on Genetic Paradigms’, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 31, 65–80.
Frezal, J., A. Munnich, and G. Mitchell: 1983, ‘One Gene, Several Messages. From Multifunctional Proteins to Endegenous Opiates’, Human Genetics 64, 311–314.
Goldschmidt, R.: 1938, ‘The Theory of the Gene’, The Scientific Monthly 46, 268–273.
Hampson, R. K. and F. M. Rottman: 1987, ‘Alternative Processing of Bovine Growth Hormone mRNA: Nonsplicing of the Final Intron Predicts a High Molecular Weight Variant of Bovine Growth Hormone’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 84, 2673–2677.
Henikoff, S. and M. K. Eghtedarzadeh: 1987, ‘Conserved Arrangements Nested Genes at the Drosophila Gart Locus’, Genetics 117, 711–725.
Hull, D. L.: 1974, The Philosophy of Biological Science, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
Jacob, F. and J. Monod: 1961, ‘Genetic Regulatory Mechanisms in the Synthesis of Proteins’, Journal of Molecular Biology 3, 318–356.
Johanssen, W.: 1909, Elemente der exakten Eblichkeitslehre, Fisher, Jena.
Kitcher, P.: 1982, ‘Genes’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 33, 337–359.
Koller, B., H. Fromm, E. Galun, and M. Edelman: 1987, ‘Evidence for in vivo Trans Splicing of Pre-mRNAs in Tobacco Chloroplasts’, Cell 48, 111–119.
Krause, M. and D. Hirsh: 1987, ‘A Trans-Spliced Leader Sequence on Actin mRNA in C. Elegans’, Cell 49, 753–761.
Lederman, M.: 1987, ‘“Genes” Amplified’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 38, 561–566.
Lee, W., A. Haslinger, M. Karin, and R. Tijan: 1987, ‘Activation of Transcription by Two Factors That Bind Promoter and Enhancer Sequences of the Human Metallothionein Gene and SV40’, Nature 325, 368–372.
Levis, R., T. Hazelrigg, and G. M. Rubin: 1985, ‘Effects of Genomic Position on the Expression of Transduced Copies of White Gene of Drosophila’, Science 229, 558–561.
Lewin, B.: 1987, Genes III, Wiley, New York.
Lewis, E. B.: 1950, ‘The Phenomenon of Position Effect’, Advances in Genetics 3, 75–115.
Maull, N.: 1977, ‘Unifying Science without Reduction’, Studies in History and Philospphy of Science 8, 143–162.
Melton, D. W.: 1987, ‘Strategies and Mechanisms for the Control of Transcriptional Initiation of Mammalian Protein-Coding Genes’, Journal of Cell Science 88, 267–270.
Nagel, E.: 1961, The Structure of Science, Harcourt, Brace and World, New York.
Raffel, D. and H. J. Muller: 1940, ‘Position Effect and Gene Divisibility Considered in Connection with Three Strikingly Similar Scute Mutations’, Genetics 25, 541–583.
Rosenberg, A.: 1985, The Structure of Biological Science, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Sastry, K. N., U. Seedorf, and S. K. Karathanasis: 1988, ‘Different cic-Acting DNA Elements Control Expression of the Human Apolipoprotein AI Gene in Different Cell Types’, Molecular and Cellular Biology 8, 605–614.
Schaffner, K. F.: 1967, ‘Approaches to Reduction’, Philosophy of Science 34, 137–147.
Schulz, R. A., L. Cherbas, and P. Cherbas: 1986, ‘Alternative Splicing Generates Two Distinct Eip28/29 Gene Transcripts in Drosophila Kc Cells’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 83, 9428–9432.
Spencer, C. A., R. D. Gietz, and R. B. Hodgetts: 1986, ‘Overlapping Transcription Units in the Dopa Decarboxylase Region of Drosophila’, Nature 322, 279–281.
Sutcliffe, J. and R. Milner: 1988, ‘Alternative mRNA Splicing: The Shaker Gene’, Trends in Genetics 4, 297–299.
Watson, J. D., N. H. Hopkins, J. W. Roberts, J. A. Steitz, and A. M. Weiner: 1987, Molecular Biology of the gene, 4th ed., Vol. 1, Benjamin/Cummings, Menlo Park, Ca.
Wieczorek, D. F., C. W. J. Smith, and B. Nadal-Ginard: 1988, ‘The Rat a-Tropomyosin Gene Generates a Minimum of Six Different mRNAs Coding for Striated, Smooth, and Nonmuscle Isoforms by Alternative Splicing’, Molecular and Cellular Biology 8, 679–694.
Wimsatt, W. C.: 1976, ‘Reductive Explanation: A Functional Account’, in R. S. Cohen (ed.), PSA 1974, Reidel, Dordrecht, Holland, pp. 671–710.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fogle, T. Are genes units of inheritance?. Biol Philos 5, 349–371 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00165258
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00165258