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1-Page Summary of The Gene

Overview

Genetics has shaped the way we view medicine and biology. It’s clear that genetics is the key to understanding life itself. This field began with humble beginnings, but it has grown into a major science.

With the rise of supercomputers, genetics has made huge strides. We still have a lot to learn about genes and how they work, but we know that as our knowledge grows and we push deeper into ways to modify them, these discoveries will have significant consequences for human life. To better understand the future, let’s turn back time and look at how scientists came to learn about genes in the first place. You’ll learn about early gene exploration that led up to eugenics during World War II. Finally you’ll wonder at challenges faced by sequencing the entire human genome and consider what society should do with modern-day genomics given its ethical implications.

This book will also tell you how scientists figured out that genes exist; how Hitler used the existence of genetic science to justify killing Jews and Gypsies; and how your environment affects your genome.

Big Idea #1: A study of genetics led to the discovery of genes and how they pass on information.

The story of the gene begins in 1864 with Austrian botanist Gregor Johann Mendel. He noticed that parent plants passed on specific traits to their offspring, unaltered by environmental factors.

When a tall plant is crossed with a dwarf plant, the offspring will all be tall. When two short plants are crossed, the offspring can be either short or tall.

Mendel’s discovery was that the trait of tallness is passed on from generation to generation.

Mendel’s research revealed that genes are the smallest units of heredity.

Years later, a botanist named Hugo De Vries brought Mendel’s ideas about genetics into the light and combined it with Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Charles Darwin proposed that all species of animals came from earlier forms of animals.

Darwin’s theory of evolution was proven by Mendel’s work. The theory suggests that species evolve over time and pass physical traits to their offspring through a gene, the messenger that contains genetic information.

De Vries pushed Mendel’s theories further, explaining why genetic differences occur. He discovered that they are accidental and essentially freaks of nature.

Charles Darwin, Alfred Wallace and Gregor Mendel worked together to discover the theory of evolution. Nature produces random variations in traits, which are then passed on to offspring. Over time, some offspring survive while others die out because of their unique features.

Big Idea #2: DNA is the building blocks of genes. Genes work together to create traits.

The discovery of the gene answered an important question regarding heredity in a species. Yet it also sparked new questions, such as what genes looked like and how they functioned biologically.

In the 1940’s, biochemists began to examine how cells worked. In the nucleus of a cell, they discovered certain molecules – DNA and RNA. These were grouped as nucleic acids because they were found in the nucleus of a cell.

There are four components in acids. DNA consists of adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T). RNA has uracil instead of thymine. It was only after the discovery of DNA that scientists found out that genes were made up of these building blocks. Traits like height aren’t determined by one gene but rather many working together, which is why they’re not controlled by an individual gene.

Think of gene expression like pixels on your smartphone screen. Each pixel is independent, but together they form a complete picture. Similarly, genes act independently, but when combined they can produce a visible trait in an organism. However, there are other factors that influence the traits you see in organisms. For example, the shape and size of someone’s nose isn’t just influenced by genetics; it can also be affected by external factors such as their environment (for example: getting punched in the face). The connection between genes and visible traits isn’t always clear-cut because scientists have ignored this link for many years due to outside influences (such as people trying to use science for their own gain).