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A Defense of Syntax-Based Gene Concepts in Postgenomics: Genes as Modular Subroutines in the Master Genomic Program

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Tudor M. Baetu
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Abstract

The purpose of this article is to update and defend syntax-based (conserved DNA-sequence motifs) gene concepts. I show how syntax-based concepts have been and can be extended to accommodate complex cases of genome expression, regulation, and processing. In response to difficult cases and causal parity objections, I argue that the syntax-based approach fleshes out a deflationary concept that defines genes in terms of sequences and organizational features of the genome that contribute to a phenotype.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 78 , Issue 5 , December 2011 , pp. 712 - 723
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

I would like to thank Lindley Darden, Erika Milam, Eric Saidel, Pamela Henson, Joan Straumanis, Lane DesAutels, Christophe DiTeresi, and the DC History and Philosophy of Biology group for helpful discussion and comments on earlier drafts. This work is supported by Fonds de la recherche sur la société et la culture, Québec, Canada (grant 127231).

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