Book contents
- Understanding Genes
- Series page
- Understanding Genes
- Copyright page
- Reviews
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface: Genes, Science, and Science Fiction
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The Public Image of Genes
- 2 The Origin and Evolution of the Gene Concept
- 3 The Devolution of the Gene Concept
- 4 There Are No “Genes For” Characteristics or Disease
- 5 What Genes “Do”
- 6 The Dethronement of Genes
- Concluding Remarks: How to Think and Talk about Genes?
- Summary of Common Misunderstandings
- References
- Index
2 - The Origin and Evolution of the Gene Concept
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2022
- Understanding Genes
- Series page
- Understanding Genes
- Copyright page
- Reviews
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface: Genes, Science, and Science Fiction
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The Public Image of Genes
- 2 The Origin and Evolution of the Gene Concept
- 3 The Devolution of the Gene Concept
- 4 There Are No “Genes For” Characteristics or Disease
- 5 What Genes “Do”
- 6 The Dethronement of Genes
- Concluding Remarks: How to Think and Talk about Genes?
- Summary of Common Misunderstandings
- References
- Index
Summary
Perhaps you were taught at school that genetics began with Gregor Mendel. Because of his experiments with peas, Mendel is considered to be a pioneer of genetics and the person who discovered the laws of heredity. According to the model of “Mendelian inheritance,” things are rather simple and straightforward with inherited characteristics. Some alleles are dominant – that is, they impose their effects on other alleles that are recessive. An individual who carries two recessive alleles exhibits the respective “recessive” characteristic, whereas a single dominant allele is sufficient for the “dominant” version of the characteristic to appear. In this sense, particular genes determine particular characteristics (e.g., seed color in peas), and particular alleles of those genes determine particular versions of the respective characteristics. Mendel, the story goes, discovered that characteristics are controlled by hereditary factors, the inheritance of which follows two laws: the law of segregation and the law of independent assortment.
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- Understanding Genes , pp. 31 - 64Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021