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"genetic determinism"
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The origin of individuals
In the 17th century, Descartes put forth the metaphor of the machine to explain the functioning of living beings. In the 18th century, La Mettrie extended the metaphor to man. The clock was then used as the paradigm of the machine. In the 20th century, this metaphor still held but the clock was replaced by a computer. Nowadays, the organism is viewed as a robot obeying signals emanating from a computer program controlled by genetic information. This book shows that such a conception leads to contradictions not only in the theory of biology but also in its experimental research program, thereby impeding its development. The analysis of this problem is based on the most recent experimental data obtained in molecular biology as well as the history and philosophy of biology. It shows that the machine theory did not succeed in breaking with Aristotle's finalism. The book presents a new approach to biological systems based on cellular Darwinism. Genes are ruled by probabilistic mechanisms allowing cells to differentiate stochastically. Embryo development is not governed by a determinist genetic program but by natural selection occurring among cell populations inside the organism. This theory has considerable philosophical consequences. Man may be a machine but he is a random one.
eBook
Genetic determinism, essentialism and reductionism: semantic clarity for contested science
Research linking genetic differences with human social and behavioural phenotypes has long been controversial. Frequently, debates about the ethical, social and legal implications of this area of research centre on questions about whether studies overtly or covertly perpetuate genetic determinism, genetic essentialism and/or genetic reductionism. Given the prominent role of the ‘-isms’ in scientific discourse and criticism, it is important for there to be consensus and clarity about the meaning of these terms. Here, the author integrates scholarship from psychology, genetics and philosophy of science to provide accessible definitions of genetic determinism, genetic reductionism and genetic essentialism. The author provides linguistic and visual examples of determinism, reductionism and essentialism in science and popular culture, discusses common misconceptions and concludes with recommendations for science communication.In this Perspective, Harden reviews the terms genetic determinism, genetic essentialism and genetic reductionism to provide consensus and clarity about the meaning of these terms. She discusses common misconceptions, illustrates examples and concludes with recommendations for science communication.
Journal Article
The genomic case against genetic determinism
Animal studies reveal that the molecular wiring of the brain can be altered by heredity, the environment, and their interaction. A deeper molecular understanding of these interactions could be a potent antidote to societal concerns of genetic determinism for human behavior, but this requires a paradigm that extends beyond traditional genome-wide association study (GWAS).
Journal Article
Wheat individual grain-size variance originates from crop development and from specific genetic determinism
Wheat grain yield is usually decomposed in the yield components: number of spikes / m2, number of grains / spike, number of grains / m2 and thousand kernel weight (TKW). These are correlated one with another due to yield component compensation. Under optimal conditions, the number of grains per m2 has been identified as the main determinant of yield. However, with increasing occurrences of post-flowering abiotic stress associated with climate change, TKW may become severely limiting and hence a target for breeding. TKW is usually studied at the plot scale as it represents the average mass of a grain. However, this view disregards the large intra-genotypic variance of individual grain mass and its effect on TKW. The aim of this study is to investigate the determinism of the variance of individual grain size. We measured yield components and individual grain size variances of two large genetic wheat panels grown in two environments. We also carried out a genome-wide association study using a dense SNPs array. We show that the variance of individual grain size partly originates from the pre-flowering components of grain yield; in particular it is driven by canopy structure via its negative correlation with the number of spikes per m2. But the variance of final grain size also has a specific genetic basis. The genome-wide analysis revealed the existence of QTL with strong effects on the variance of individual grain size, independently from the other yield components. Finally, our results reveal some interesting drivers for manipulating individual grain size variance either through canopy structure or through specific chromosomal regions.
Journal Article
The Value of Believing in Free Will: Encouraging a Belief in Determinism Increases Cheating
Does moral behavior draw on a belief in free will? Two experiments examined whether inducing participants to believe that human behavior is predetermined would encourage cheating. In Experiment 1, participants read either text that encouraged a belief in determinism (i.e., that portrayed behavior as the consequence of environmental and genetic factors) or neutral text. Exposure to the deterministic message increased cheating on a task in which participants could passively allow a flawed computer program to reveal answers to mathematical problems that they had been instructed to solve themselves. Moreover, increased cheating behavior was mediated by decreased belief in free will. In Experiment 2, participants who read deterministic statements cheated by overpaying themselves for performance on a cognitive task; participants who read statements endorsing free will did not. These findings suggest that the debate over free will has societal, as well as scientific and theoretical, implications.
Journal Article
Young Adults’ Belief in Genetic Determinism, and Knowledge and Attitudes towards Modern Genetics and Genomics: The PUGGS Questionnaire
In this paper we present the development and validation a comprehensive questionnaire to assess college students' knowledge about modern genetics and genomics, their belief in genetic determinism, and their attitudes towards applications of modern genetics and genomic-based technologies. Written in everyday language with minimal jargon, the Public Understanding and Attitudes towards Genetics and Genomics (PUGGS) questionnaire is intended for use in research on science education and public understanding of science, as a means to investigate relationships between knowledge, determinism and attitudes about modern genetics, which are to date little understood. We developed a set of core ideas and initial items from reviewing the scientific literature on genetics and previous studies on public and student knowledge and attitudes about genetics. Seventeen international experts from different fields (e.g., genetics, education, philosophy of science) reviewed the initial items and their feedback was used to revise the questionnaire. We validated the questionnaire in two pilot tests with samples of university freshmen students. The final questionnaire contains 45 items, including both multiple choice and Likert scale response formats. Cronbach alpha showed good reliability for each section of the questionnaire. In conclusion, the PUGGS questionnaire is a reliable tool for investigating public understanding and attitudes towards modern genetics and genomic-based technologies.
Journal Article
Genome-wide association study reveals the genetic determinism of serum biochemical indicators in ducks
Background
The serum is rich in nutrients and plays an essential role in electrolyte and acid–base balance, maintaining cellular homeostasis. In addition, serum parameters have been commonly used as essential biomarkers for clinical diagnosis. However, little is known about the genetic mechanism of the serum parameters in ducks.
Results
This study measured 18 serum parameters in 320 samples of the F
2
segregating population generated by Mallard × Pekin duck. The phenotypic correlations showed a high correlation between LDH, HBDH, AST, and ALT (0.59–0.99), and higher coefficients were also observed among TP, ALB, HDL-C, and CHO (0.46–0.87). And then, we performed the GWAS to reveal the genetic basis of the 18 serum biochemical parameters in ducks. Fourteen candidate protein-coding genes were identified with enzyme traits (AST, ALP, LDH, HBDH), and 3 protein-coding genes were associated with metabolism and protein-related serum parameters (UA, TG). Moreover, the expression levels of the above candidate protein-coding genes in different stages of breast muscle and different tissues were analyzed. Furthermore, the genes located within the high-LD region (r
2
> 0.4 and − log
10
(
P
) < 4) neighboring the significant locus also remained. Finally, 86 putative protein-coding genes were used for GO and KEGG enrichment analysis, the enzyme-linked receptor protein signaling pathway and ErbB signaling pathway deserve further focus.
Conclusions
The obtained results can contribute to new insights into blood metabolism and provide new genetic biomarkers for application in duck breeding programs.
Journal Article
Noise Can Induce Bimodality in Positive Transcriptional Feedback Loops Without Bistability
Transcriptional positive-feedback loops are widely associated with bistability, characterized by two stable expression states that allow cells to respond to analog signals in a digital manner. Using a synthetic system in budding yeast, we show that positive feedback involving a promoter with multiple transcription factor (TF) binding sites can induce a steady-state bimodal response without cooperative binding of the TF. Deterministic models of this system do not predict bistability. Rather, the bimodal response requires a short-lived TF and stochastic fluctuations in the TF's expression. Multiple binding sites provide these fluctuations. Because many promoters possess multiple binding sites and many TFs are unstable, positive-feedback loops in gene regulatory networks may exhibit bimodal responses, but not necessarily because of deterministic bistability, as is commonly thought.
Journal Article
Assessing the phenotypic variation, heritability and genetic advance in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) candidate lines grown under rainfed semi-arid region of Algeria
The genetic improvement of any breeding population largely depends upon the magnitude of genetic variability present. This study was carried out to estimate parameters of the genetic variation among 13 quantitative traits of bread wheat evaluated at INRAA-Setif institute (Algeria) during the 2020–2021 crop season in a rainfed environment. 34 genotypes including four control checks were planted in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Genotypes showed significant variations for almost all the studied traits. Proline content, spikes weight, and grain yield exhibited a high genotypic coefficient of variation along with moderate to high heritability coupled with a high genetic gain, suggesting the implication of additive gene action. The number of spikes, spikes weight, and thousand kernel weight were significantly and positively correlated with grain yield at both phenotypic and genotypic levels. Path analysis results showed that spikes weight is an important route through which most of the measured traits influenced indirectly grain yield. Lines L1, L20, L28, L16, and L18 exhibited a sizeable grain yield advantage, which suggests they are potential candidates for future release and could be incorporated into the wheat breeding programs as parents to improve yield in the rainfed environments of Algeria
Journal Article