2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Gene - A Modern Vision, February 5, 2006
There is a good chance that you have seen this TV commercial: A three year old is knocking the socks off a highly ranked tennis professional. His parents, Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, all-time tennis greats, pull up in a minivan beckoning the child to come home. The background voice says with finality: "The right genes make all the difference." Even if you missed the commercial, almost certainly you have read somewhere and recently: "A gene has been discovered for..." Alas, as has been said in a related context, "It ain't necessarily so." (Cf. R. Lewontin's It Ain't Necessarily So: The Dream of the Human Genome and Other Illusions, New York Review Books, 2000).
Aptly titled, The Misunderstood Gene by Michel Morange provides a detailed account of the molecular processes that underlie human genetics. These details illustrate the mechanisms that make it unlikely we will find a gene for heart disease, diabetes, homosexuality or whatever, even in the midst of conventional wisdom that insists on the contrary and is burnished by the Mendelian-Crick view of genetic activity: ie. genes produce traits; beyond mutation, genes are hermetically sealed against environmental effects. (At this point, someone is sure to bring up single gene diseases in an au contraire tone of voice. From among many sources that might be cited, single gene disease proponents might want to read: Mulvihill, J.J. Craniofacial syndrome: No such thing as a single gene disease, Nature Genetics, 1995, 9, 101-103; Alper, J. Genetic complexity in single gene diseases. Brit. Med. J., 1996, 312, 196-197.).
Morange, a molecular biologist and historian of science, is Professor of Biology and Director of the Center for the Study of the History of Science at the prestigious Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris. In 'Misunderstood' he follows up on his widely acclaimed A History of Molecular Biology (Harvard Univ. Press, 2000). After spending a lifetime of research in molecular biology and its history, lest he be misunderstood, Morange takes pains to make clear the fundamental role genes play in life processes. At the same time he aims to "put forward a new vision of genes" that will supersede the outmoded "concept of the gene that is used by the general public and by many scientists..." In this he succeeds admirably. The reader who expects the devil is in the details will not be surprised by Morange's account. However, those who want to learn more about non-genetic hereditary transmission will have to look elsewhere (for examples, cf. E. Jablonka & M.J. Lamb, Evolution in Four Dimensions, MIT Press, 2005; G. Gottlieb, Synthesizing Nature-Nurture, Lawrence Erlbaum, 1997).
In Chapters One and Two, Morange reviews the classical concept of the gene, which as a salient obscured basic phenomena of developmental biology, and the ambiguities that compromise any simple rendering of the gene concept. Chapters Three and Five provide a brief description of how genes are studied including the "knockout" procedure and the surprising results obtained when a gene is replaced by its inactivated copy. Chapter Four explores the mechanisms through which genes lead to disease and just how tricky this analysis is. Of course, the obligatory so-called single gene disease, phenylketonuria (PKU), is presented with its decisive environmental factors. But, refreshingly, the illuminating, though less well known Williams syndrome, a neuropathology with complex cognitive manifestations is also presented with its genetic twists and turns. In Morange's careful analyses one can readily see how far removed gene action is from traits or behaviors that are often ascribed to genes in contemporary accounts.
Chapter Six is an excellent survey of the molecules that form the basis for brain processes while Chapter Seven gets us into fountain of youth territory - genes controlling life and death. (To paraphrase Emily Dickinson: No discovery, no crew, no Golden Fleece, fountain-sham-too.). Chapter Eight explores the relationship between observable human behavior and genetic processes including the many ways one can be led down the garden path of false conclusions. Just how elemental the genetic processes involved in complex behavior can be is nicely shown through a description of the circadian system's PER and CLOCK proteins (genes). The complex web of connections among gene mechanisms, physiological systems, the ecological environment, life, health, sickness and human adaptation in general are also tied together in A.R. Cellura's The Genomic Environment and Niche-Experience (Cedar Springs Press, 2005).
In Chapter Nine, Morange summarizes the theoretical implications of his modern vision of the gene. Simple genetic determinism gives way for at least four reasons. First, a gene can have multiple functions and outcomes (pleiotropy). Second, the genome consists of redundant functions that can compensate for proteins that are missing or changed through mutations and other effects. Third, there is a hierarchical structure of genetic mechanisms with the same protein often having a different function depending on that hierarchy. Fourth, there is plasticity in gene function in which a gene that typically plays one role takes on another role. The last chapter of the book takes up evolutionary and ethical issues. Overall, the author cites almost 300 references, most from 1996 to 2000 in the molecular biology and genetics literature. A useful index is also provided.
The Misunderstood Gene is an extremely valuable survey of developments over the past twenty years in the intersect between molecular biology and genetics. It is highly recommended for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in the biological, medical and social sciences but expertise in these fields is not required. The book is well written (and translated) and quite readable by the educated lay person interested in biology and genetics.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
an excellent read, December 30, 2005
Morange's work does an excellent job clarifying the role that DNA has in life. To do this Morange gets into some history and even theology. He notes that theology has had a role in evolution from the very beginning of the theory. For example, Darwin "tried to remove God from the" natural world, even to the extent of opposing the idea of macrovariations (now called macroevolution) because he felt that this view had "an almost supernatural nature" (page 18). He supported gradualism until he died. In this case Darwin's atheistic theology got in the way of science progress. Now, due to the work of Gould and Elbridge, gradualism has fallen out of favor with many biologists. One of the goals of the book is to discuss the new view of evolution called Neutralism, a new theory of evolution that disputes several major aspects of neo-Darwinism. Neutralism emphasizes the role of chance in evolution and downplays that of natural selection (page 20). Morange notes that natural selection is now recognized as less important then it once was. He notes that "chance has began to assume an important place in evolutionary theory," partly because the work of biochemists has found the existence of "a large number of silent mutations that are not exposed to selection pressures" (page 19). The presence of a "particular form of gene in a given population is often due more to chance, or rather to history, than to pressure from natural selection" Morange then details this revolution in evolutionary biology. Will Neutralism replace neo-Darwinism? One thing is for sure genetics and the gene are far more complicated then we had ever dreamed even just a few years ago, and to adequately review this book would take another book. The last chapter is an excellent discussion of eugenics, an idea that is still, unfortunately, very much with us.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Misunderstanding the Misunderstood Gene, November 24, 2001
First this is an excellent, clear and concise survey of recent breakthroughs in genetic microbiology. Don't hesitate to read this book because of anything I'm saying here. All the hullabaloo over the sequencing of the human genome (and others) is and was mere PR to get more funding and stock sales for the Genome Projects. As Morange points out, much of the hype has only confused the continuing issues of determinism and eugenics.
But I couldn't help concluding that the writer spent too much time repeating the hype. The book is worth reading for the mouse and fuitfly knockout studies in themselves. How one missing gene and its offspring protein in the hypothalamus of a mother mouse dealt a death blow to her litter because it destroyed her insinct to nurse is an astonishing finding. Yet the Author treats it as a so-so event. In trying to complicate the process of gene determinism the Author, himself, seems to misunderstand the misunderstood gene. When a gene is singled out as producing one of many outcomes no one is trying to imply that the essential protein and cell organells do not play their important role in this outcome.
For Morange to pretend he is adding great insight by pointing out that the human gene's protein is but one layer in a heirarchy of formational processes is quite redundant. Everyone knows the total matrix of the cell is essential to the expression of any gene.
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