What is a Gene? History and Updated Definition.
An open access article is available under the title, “What is a gene, post-ENCODE? History and updated definition,” published in Genome Res. 17: 669-681 (2007), written by ten experts, eight belonging to different departments at Yale University, one of the ten at Stockholm University and the other at European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Germany. Describing the gene as conceived in pre- and post-Mendelian era until the discovery of the Structure and Function of a DNA molecule, the article elucidates the changing definition of a gene pointing out that the classical concept that genotype determines phenotype still hold good and has not changed over time and that at the molecular level one DNA sequence still codes for one protein or RNA: which means that DNA sequences determine the sequences of functional molecules.. A part of the concluding paragraph quoted from Falk is reproduced here: ‘‘. . . the gene is neither discrete nor continuous, nor does it have a constant location, nor a clear cut function, not even constant sequences nor definite borderlines.” And now the ENCODE project has increased the complexity still further. In the most general case, genes can be defined “consisting of sequence modules that combine in multiple ways to generate products. By focusing on the functional products of the genome, this definition sets a concrete standard in enumerating unambiguously the number of genes it contains.” Click here to read the whole article.
