The GENE - An Intimate Story (Siddhartha Mukherjee)
The GENE Charles Darwin imagined that the cells of all organism produce minute particles containing hereditary information - gemmules, he called them. Genes do not travel independently ; instead they moved in packs. Packets of information were themselves packaged - into chromosomes and ultimately in cells. To explain nature's past, present and future through the lens of gene - Evolution - (Past) How did living things arise ? Variation - (Present) Why do they look like this now ? Embryogenesis - (Future) How does a single cell create a living thing that will eventually acquire its particular form ? To explain the intersection of genetics, natural selection and evolution in formal terms, Dobzhansky resurrected two important words - genotype and phenotype. A Genotype is an organism's genetic composition. It can refer to one gene, a configuration of gene or an entire genome. A Phenotype in contrast refers to an organism's physical or biological attr