This paper's aim is threefold. First, I wish to show that there is an analogy in section nine that arises out of the interaction of the interlocutors; this analogy is, or has, a certain comic adequatic to the traditional (e.g. Aquinas's) arguments about proofs for the existence of God. Second, Philo's seemingly inconsequential example of the strange necessity of products of 9 in section nine is a perfected analogy of the broken arguments actually given in that section, destroying Philo's earlier (...) arguments. Finally, I raise the question of the designer's intent in creating such a humourous piece. (shrink)

The pinnacle of the physician's clinical skills is his ability to develop the autonomy of his patients in the management of their health affairs. To do this requires the forging of a relationship in which patients' attitudes toward their health and illness are products of the doctor-patient relationship rather than unilateral behavior by either one. Modern medicine is beset with problems that make it difficult for physicians to develop and exercise the skills that lead to patient autonomy. An erosion of (...) public confidence in physicians is being caused by several mojar forces that include: (1) the power of science over life; (2) medical technology's dehumanizing effect; (3) legalization of medical ethics; and (4) industrialization and commercialization of medical care. To restore the kind of confidence that makes the physician an effective proponent of his patient's autonomy will require a major emphasis upon all aspects of medical ethics in the medical curriculum and in medical practice. Clinical investigation of this subject is highly appropriate. Clinical faculties should be developed in greater numbers who are authorities in the humanities as well as in science. Our medical schools need also to develop and to utilize models of health care in which relations with patients are personalized, continuous, and comprehensive so that ethical ideals such as patient autonomy can be demonstrated by precept and example, and can also be researched. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Mimesis: Culture, Art, SocietyGene FendtMimesis: Culture, Art, Society, by Gunter Gebauer and Christoph Wulf; translated by Don Reneau; 400 pp. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995, $45.00 cloth, $18.00 paper.The purpose of this book is to develop “a historical reconstruction of important phases in the development of mimesis” (p. 1) from a brief discussion of its pre-Platonic Greek significance through contemporary thinkers. It is, then, not strictly a (...) philosophical text, as are most of the texts and authors the book takes up. It is, however, a significant effort in the history of ideas, and as such it is shot through with traces of the traditional tropes, shaping power, ideology, and even social relations of that discipline, particularly as it is practiced in the venerable school of German scholarship. That is, the structure, tone, and argument of the book are shaped mimetically. This book’s problematic is, then, not simply historical, as Republic’s problem with the poets is not simply philosophical. Rather, both books partake of mimesis, even while each one aims to criticize or set forth the concept’s historical development.Let this stand as notice of a deep philosophical problem with the method of historical criticism. In fairness we should note that the authors are not unconscious of their difficulty here: “The fact that mimesis cannot be represented without the use of mimetic processes poses the fundamental problem of theory formation in reference to our object. What is the relation between the representational and the represented world? Is the representation of representation structurally equivalent to simple representation?” (p. 21). The authors hope to moot the power of those questions, if not the questions themselves, by attending “first of all to representations of mimesis found in texts best selected for that purpose and only afterward begin to offer considerations of a more generalizing nature” (p. 21). Their reasoning and choice of texts here is the traditional trope of the discipline: a mimema. Among other things, this methodos requires that the authors treat Girard as developing a “literary critical examination of [mimesis in] nineteenth and twentieth century novels” (p. 359n1) and a “new ordering of nineteenth century social relations” (p. 235), rather than, as he claims, a comprehensive anthropological thesis. At least, this method requires treating the former as essential, and the latter as less justifiable, for if Girard’s anthropological thesis about mimesis were justifiable a history of the idea of mimesis would be merely a heresiology. This problem can be restated mutatis mutandis for such thinkers as Plato and Augustine, whose theses—if they have theses—about mimesis are deeply anthropological.Two further questions arise early on and remain at the end. If, as the authors hold (and show), “the concept of mimesis necessarily loses its intellectual centrality with the rise of rational thought,” so much so that “the field of art, which comes to be regarded in the process as autonomous, undergoes a complete and fundamental restructuring” (p. 3), must we not begin to [End Page 199] suspect—as recent philosophers like Derrida attempt to show—that there is a dialectical relationship between the intentional, truth-functional relations of modern rational thought and the mimetic, unformalizable and “ambivalent” (pp. 2–3) processes of mimesis? Rather than conclude that “the question what is mimesis? is one which demonstratively leads to error” (p. 309), does it not begin to seem that intentional representation, as most visible in science, and mimetic assimilations, as most obviously effective in art, are together the necessary dialectical elements of culture, art and science? While it seems that the rise of rational scientific thought pushes mimesis to the social fringes of the arts, isn’t scientific activity and writing still just as much subject, and just as much a product, of the power of mimesis as art? Similarly art is just as bound as science to “probability” or “the convincing impossibility,” to recall Aristotle. This idea is not entirely foreign to the book; it appears subliminally as a plausible explication of the work of theorists like Benjamin and Adorno (pp. 267–93).The third difficulty is a question about selection. As in Auerbach’s renowned precursor, Wulf... (shrink)

We all live our daily lives surrounded by the products of technology that make what we do simpler, faster, and more efficient. These are benefits we often just take for granted. But at the same time, as these products disburden us of unwanted tasks that consumed much time and effort in earlier eras, many of them also leave us more disengaged from our natural and even human surroundings. It is the task of what Gene Moriarty calls focal engineering to (...) create products that will achieve a balance between disburdenment and engagement: “How much disburdenment will be appropriate while still permitting an engagement that enriches one’s life, elevates the spirit, and calls forth a good life in a convivial society?” One of his examples of a focally engineered structure is the Golden Gate Bridge, which “draws people to it, enlivens and elevates the human spirit, and resonates with the world of its congenial setting. Humans, bridge, and world are in tune.” These values of engagement, enlivenment, and resonance are key to the normative approach Moriarty brings to the profession of engineering, which traditionally has focused mainly on technical measures of evaluation such as efficiency, productivity, objectivity, and precision. These measures, while important, look at the engineered product in a local and limited sense. But “from a broader perspective, what is locally benign may present serious moral problems,” undermining “social justice, environmental sustainability, and health and safety of affected parties.” It is this broader perspective that is championed by focal engineering, the subject of Part III of the book, which Moriarty contrasts with “modern” engineering in Part I and “pre-modern” engineering in Part II. (shrink)

The Gene Ontology is an important tool for the representation and processing of information about gene products and functions. It provides controlled vocabularies for the designations of cellular components, molecular functions, and biological processes used in the annotation of genes and gene products. These constitute three separate ontologies, of cellular components), molecular functions and biological processes, respectively. The question we address here is: how are the terms in these three separate ontologies related to each other? We use (...) statistical methods and formal ontological principles as a first step towards finding answers to this question. (shrink)

The slandering of a firm’s products by competing firms poses significant threats to the victim firm, with the resulting damage often being as harmful as that from product-harm crises. In contrast to a true product-harm crisis, however, this disparagement is based on a false claim or fake news; thus, we call it a pseudo-product-harm crisis. Using a pseudo-product-harm crisis event that involved two competing firms, this research examines how consumer sentiments about the two firms evolved in (...) response to the crisis. Our analyses show that while both firms suffered, the damage to the offending firm was more detrimental, in terms of advertising effectiveness and negative news publicity, than that to the victim firm. Our study indicates that, even apart from ethical concerns, the false claim about the victim firm was not an effective business strategy to increase the offending firm’s performance. (shrink)

The article presents three models of radical cultural practice: Adorno’s dissonant modernism, Brecht’s “functional transformation” or “re-functioning” of institutions through estrangement and dialectical realism, and Debord’s Situationist détournement of art, aiming to rupture and decolonize naturalized everyday life. The three models all begin with a critical appropriation of the traditions of art and aims at resisting the social power that passes through art, as an institutionalized field of production and activity. Each of the three modes establishes a set of productive (...) strategies. (shrink)

An anthology of contemporary readings in analytic aesthetics, this reference reflects the relationships among the central aesthetic concerns of recent years. Providing a new perspective on the contemporary philosophy of art, this volume examines the challenge of Postmodernism and how it may or may not affect the future of analytic aesthetics... offers a case study of the progress that has been made in handling the problem of expression in the arts... reconceptualizes the concepts of the art work, its properties, and (...) our experience and evaluation of it -- to take into account an expanding cultural, sociological contextualization, i.e., art as a culturally emergent product of social institutions and conventions... features several readings organized around clusters of writers discussing each other's ideas and proposals, including: Beardsley, Dickie, and Blizek -- Wolterstorff, Levinson, and Bender -- Stolnitz and Dickie -- Beardsley, Margolis, and Novitz -- and Sibley and Dickie. Suitable for professionals in the art industry and anyone interested in the philosophy or aesthetics of art. (shrink)

In this paper, dimensions of the debate surrounding the application of gene technology to food production are discussed and a study assessing perceptions of the technology among a sample of the UK public (n = 1499) is reported. The general picture that emerges from the study is one of people expressing low familiarity with the technology, with more people associating it with high risks than with low risks, and more people expecting it to provide low benefits than high benefits. (...) Attitudes towards different applications vary significantly, as does trust in different potential sources of information about the technology. It is also shown that attitudes can be predicted not only by estimates of risks and benefits but also by perceptions of the involvement of ethical issues, by the perceived need for the technology, and by the perceived likelihood of improvements it is likely to bring to the quality of life in the UK. The results are discussed in the context of the need for greater public information about the technology and the realization that communication of risks takes place within a complex network of societal relationships. (shrink)

The different and seemingly unrelated practices of Information and Communication Technologies used to collect and share personal and scientific data within networked communities, and the organized storage of human genetic samples and information—namely biobanking—have merged with another recent epistemic and social phenomenon, namely scientists and citizens collaborating as “peers” in creating knowledge. These different dimensions can be found in joint initiatives where scientists-and-citizens use genetic information and ICT as powerful ways to gain more control over their health and the environment. (...) While this kind of initiative usually takes place only after rights have been infringed —as the two cases presented in the paper show—collaborative scientists-and-citizens’ knowledge should be institutionally allowed to complement and corroborate official knowledge-supporting policies. (shrink)

The linear sequence specification of a gene product is not provided by the target DNA sequence alone but by the mechanisms of gene expressions. The main actors of these mechanisms, proteins and functional RNAs, relay environmental information to the genome with important consequences to sequence selection and processing. This `postgenomic' reality has implications for our understandings of development not as predetermined by genes but as an epigenetic process. Critics of genetic determinism have long argued that the activity (...) of `genes' and hence their contribution to the phenotype depends on intra- and extraorganismal `environmental' elements. As will be shown here, even the mere physical existence of a `gene' is dependent on its phenotypic context. (shrink)

The universally recognized backbone of molecular biology describes the flow of genetic information from deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) to ribonucleic acid (RNA) to protein or gene product, that is, DNA is transcribed into another nucleic acid (RNA), which is single stranded, next some types of RNA are in turn translated into proteins. Translation of nucleic acids to proteins is literally a translation from the genomic language to the metabolic language. Codons formed of a sequence of three nucleic acids summon (...) a specific amino acid. Translation from codons to proteins, that is, protein synthesis, takes place by specialized machinery comprising mRNA, ribosomes, and free amino acids. Inferring the structure of DNA opened the door for tremendous advances in understanding the role of genes in creating life, directing replication, and ongoing metabolic processes responsible for maintaining life at both the cellular and organism level. (shrink)

Although much has been learned about hereditary mechanisms since Gregor Mendel’s famous experiments, gene concepts have always remained vague, notwithstanding their central role in biology. During over hundred years of genetic research, gene concepts have often and dynamically changed to accommodate novel experimental findings, without ever providing a generally accepted definition of the ‘gene.’ Yet, the distinction between ‘regulatory genes’ and ‘structural genes’ has remained a common theme in modern gene concepts since the definition of the (...) operon-model. This distinction is now challenged by recent findings which suggest that, at least in eukaryotes, structural genes may in many situations have a regulatory function that is independent of the function of the gene product (protein or non-coding RNA molecule). This brief paper discusses these new findings and some possible implications for the notion of the ‘regulatory gene.’. (shrink)

Alzheimer's disease is characterized by plaques of amyloid-beta peptide, cleaved from amyloid-beta protein precursor . Our hypothesis is that lifespan profiles of AD-associated mRNA and protein levels in monkeys would differ from mice and that differential lifespan expression profiles would be useful to understand human AD pathogenesis. We compared profiles of AbetaPP mRNA, AbetaPP protein, and Abeta levels in rodents and primates. We also tracked a transcriptional regulator of the AbetaPP gene, specificity protein 1 , and the beta amyloid (...) precursor cleaving enzyme . In mice, AbetaPP and SP1 mRNA and their protein products were elevated late in life; Abeta levels declined in old age. In monkeys, SP1, AbetaPP, and BACE1 mRNA declined in old age, while protein products and Abeta levels rose. Proteolytic processing in both species did not match production of Abeta. In primates, AbetaPP and SP1 mRNA levels coordinate, but an inverse relationship exists with corresponding protein products as well as Abeta levels. Comparison of human DNA and mRNA sequences to monkey and mouse counterparts revealed structural features that may explain differences in transcriptional and translational processing. These findings are important for selecting appropriate models for AD and other age-related diseases. (shrink)

Gap genes stand at the top of the zygotic segmentation hierarchy in Drosophila. Their expression domains are set up by a combination of maternal regulatory signals and interactions among themselves. In addition, these regulatory pathways are partially redundantly specified by the maternal and zygotic genomes, or by multiple zygotic gene products. The gap genes code for transcription factors which exert their function by foming short‐range morphogenetic gradients; differential concentrations of these transcription factors can either act as activators or as (...) repressors for the expression domains of neighbouring genes. It is possible to view the gap genes as a system of genes that subdivides the embryo by forming an activation‐repression cascade proceeding from anterior towards posterior. (shrink)

The decade-long debate over ownership of living human materials has recently intensified with the ability of biomedical research to isolate, purify, and use human genes and gene products as therapeutics, factories for the production of therapeutics, and targets for the identification of therapeutic pharmaceuticals. Indeed, advances in genomic research have resulted in the identification of hundreds of thousands of DNA fragments and hundreds of genes. Many within the scientific and business communities believe genes and gene fragments have commercial (...) value and have filed patent applications on the nucleic acid sequences. This commercialization has amplified the discussion surrounding the ethics of patenting genes and the ownership of the human genome. (shrink)

The retinoblastoma sensitivity protein (Rb) and the p53 gene product both appear to function as negative regulators of cell division or abnormal cellular growth in some differentiated cell types. Several types of cancers have been shown to be derived from cells that have extensively mutated both alleles of one or both of these genes, resulting in a loss‐of‐function mutation. In the case of the p53 gene, this mutational process appears to occur in two steps, with the first (...) mutation at the p53 locus resulting in a trans‐dominant phenotype. The mutant p53 gene product enters into an oligomeric protein complex with the wild‐type p53 protein derived from the other normal allele and such a complex is inactive or less efficient in its negative regulation of growth control. This intermediate stage of carcinogenesis selects for the proliferation of cells with one mutant allele, enhancing the probability of obtaining a cancer cell with both alleles damaged.The DNA tumor viruses have evolved mechanisms to interact with the Rb and p53 negative regulators of cellular growth in order to enhance their own replication in growing cells. SV40 and adenovirus type 5 produce viral encoded proteins that also form oligomeric protein complexes with p53 and Rb, presumably inactivating their functions. These viral proteins are also the oncogene products of these viruses. Thus, the mechanisms by which cancer may arise in a host, via mutations or virus infections, have fundamental common pathways effecting the same cellular genes and gene products; Rb and p53. (shrink)

The view advanced by Madole & Harden falls back on the dogma of a gene as a DNA sequence that codes for a fixed product with an invariant function regardless of temporal and spatial contexts. This outdated perspective entrenches the metaphor of genes as static units of information and glosses over developmental complexities.

When rates of transcription from specific genes change, delays of variable length intervene before the corresponding mRNAs and proteins attain new levels. For most mammalian genes, the time required to complete transcription, processing, and transport of mRNA is much shorter than the period needed to achieve a new, steady‐state level of protein. Studies of inducible genes have shown that the period required to attain new levels of individual mRNAs and proteins is related to their unique half‐lives. The basis for this (...) is a physical principle that predicts rates of accumulation of particles in compartmental systems. The minimum period required to achieve a new level is directly proportional to product half‐lives because rates of decay control the ratio between the rate of synthesis and the concentration of gene products at steady state. This kinetic model suggests that sensitivity of gene products to degradation by ribonucleases and proteinases is an important determinant of the time scale of gene expression. (shrink)

I argue that our general disposition to make moral judgments and our core moral intuitions are likely the product of social selection—a kind of gene–culture coevolution driven by the enforcement of collectively agreed-upon rules. Social selection could potentially track mind-independent moral truth by a process that I term realist social selection: our ancestors could have acquired moral knowledge via reason and enforced rules based on that knowledge, thereby creating selection pressures that drove the evolution of our moral psychology. (...) Given anthropological evidence that early humans designed rules with the conscious aim of preserving individual autonomy and advancing their collective interests, the theory of realist social selection appears to be attractive for moral realists. The goal of evolutionary debunking arguments should be to show not that our moral beliefs are the product of natural selection, but that realist social selection did not occur. (shrink)

Although the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) has granted patents on genes for over 20 years, the prudence of gene patenting continues to stir controversy. Some have questioned the ethics of monopolizing a resource that is so fundamental and basic to all living organisms. It has also been argued that patents unfairly restrict the use of genes, impeding both basic and commercial research. For the biotechnology industry, however, gene patents are the currency it uses to protect its (...) investment in research and development, and eventually, the products it brings to market. This paper examines the eligibility of genes for patenting, and considers whether the policy reasons that have led courts to decide that certain categories of subject matter are unpatentable, apply to the realm of genes. Even if this were the case, this does not mean that biotech companies have no way of protecting their inventions. Methods and processes of using the genes do not invoke the same policy considerations, and may provide a more appropriate way of rewarding industry for the narrow discovery of a gene’s specific use. (shrink)

Mendelian Inheritance in Man, a computerized catalogue of human genetic disorders authored and maintained by cardiologist and medical genetics pioneer Victor A. McKusick, played a major part in demarcating between a novel biomedical science and the eugenic projects of racial betterment which existed prior to its emergence. Nonetheless, it built upon prior efforts to systematize genetic knowledge tied to individuals and institutions invested in eugenics. By unpacking the process of digitizing a homespun cataloguing project and charting its development into an (...) online database, this article aims to illuminate how the institution-building efforts of one individual created an ‘information order’ for accessing genetic information that tacitly shaped the norms and priorities of the field toward the pursuit of specific genes associated with discernible genetic disorders. This was not by design, but rather arose through negotiation with the catalogue's users; it accommodated further changes as biomedical research displaced the Mendelian paradigm. While great effort was expended toward making sequence data available to investigators during the Human Genome Project, MIM was largely taken for granted as a ‘legacy system’, McKusick's own labour of love. Drawing on recent histories of biomedical data, the article suggests that the bibliographical work of curation and translation is a central feature of value production in the life sciences meriting attention in its own right. (shrink)

The precocious induction in vivo and in culture of insect and amphibian metamorphosis by exogenous ecdysteroids and thyroid hormones, and its retardation or inhibition by juvenile hormone and prolactin, respectively, has allowed the analysis of such diverse processes of post‐embryonic development as morphogenesis, tissue remodelling, functional reorganization, and programmed cell death. Metamorphosis in vertebrates also shares many similarities with mammalian development in the late foetal and perinatal period. This review describes the regulation of expression of some of the ‘adult’ (...) class='Hi'>gene products during metamorphosis in invertebrates and vertebrates. Recent studies on metamorphosis have revealed the important role played by auto‐induction of hormone receptor genes, based on which a model will be presented to explain the activation of ‘downstream’ genes which give rise to the adult phenotype. It will also be argued that metamorphosis is an ideal model for analyzing some of the major mechanisms governing post‐embryonic development. (shrink)

Physiological investigation has demonstrated that the central nervous system monitors body composition and adjusts energy intake and expenditure to stabilize total adipose tissue mass. Genetic variations in the signalling molecules involved in this regulatory system account for the heritable component of body fat content. The application of molecular techniques to rodent models of Mendelian obesity has resulted in the characterization of five loci at which mutations produce an abnormal accumulation of body fat. The genes at these loci include agouti, which (...) encodes a molecule that antagonizes the binding of alpha melanocyte‐stimulating hormone to its receptor; fat, which encodes carboxypeptidase E; tubby, which encodes a putative phosphodiesterase; obese, which encodes a circulating satiety protein; and diabetes, which encodes the receptor for the obese gene product. A more detailed understanding of the functional interrelationships of these genes should lead to important new insights into the causes and potential therapies for human obesity. (shrink)

This article challenges the view of disability presented by Harris in his article, “Is gene therapy a form of eugenics?”1 It is argued that his definition of disability rests on an individual model of disability, where disability is regarded as a product of biological determinism or “personal tragedy” in the individual. Within disability theory this view is often called “the medical model” and it has been criticised for not being able to deal with the term “disability”, but only (...) with impairment. The individual model of disability presupposes a necessary causal link between a certain condition in the individual and disablement. The shortcomings of such a view of disability are stated and it is argued that in order to have an adequate ethical discourse on gene therapy perspectives from disability research need to be taken into consideration. (shrink)

A gene's “expression profile” denotes the number of transcripts present relative to all other transcripts. The overall rate of transcript production is determined by transcription and RNA processing rates. While the speed of elongating RNA polymerase II has been characterized for many different genes and organisms, gene‐architectural features – primarily the number and length of exons and introns – have recently emerged as important regulatory players. Several new studies indicate that rapidly cycling cells constrain gene‐architecture toward short (...) genes with a few introns, allowing efficient expression during short cell cycles. In contrast, longer genes with long introns exhibit delayed expression, which can serve as timing mechanisms for patterning processes. These findings indicate that cell cycle constraints drive the evolution of gene‐architecture and shape the transcriptome of a given cell type. Furthermore, a tendency for short genes to be evolutionarily young hints at links between cellular constraints and the evolution of animal ontogeny. (shrink)

Alterations in the expression of certain genes or in their products can render benign tumor cells metastatic. Experimentally this has been quickly performed by transferring dominantly acting oncogenes such as c‐H‐rasEJ into susceptible cells, but in vivo such a rapid qualitative change in a dominantly acting oncogene occurs only rarely, and progression to highly metastatic phenotypes is thought to occur through a slow stepwise process. Such slow changes can be reversible and need not involve known dominantly acting oncogenes, consistent with (...) clinical observations. An important element of the natural progression of tumors to malignancy may be their ability to circumvent microenvironmental controls that regulate growth and cellular diversity and to evolve into heterogeneous phenotypes, a process that appears to involve mainly quantitative changes in gene expression but which can be rapidly stimulated in cell culture by the introduction of a dominantly acting oncogene. It is proposed that the highly malignant cells that have slowly evolved in vivo with only a few qualitative gene changes have undergone extensive cycles of diversification and accumulation of quantitative changes in the expression of genes that encode products that are related to malignancy and metastasis. Thus, highly malignant cellular phenotypes can arise quickly through specific qualitative changes in critical controlling genes or more slowly by less critical qualitative genetic changes, coupled with cellular diversification and accumulation of quantitative changes in gene expression. (shrink)

It may be unethical to deny children with cystic fibrosis access to ethically approved clinical trials from which they might benefitDespite advances in nutritional management, aggressive antibiotic usage, and physiotherapy, cystic fibrosis remains a life limiting illness with high morbidity that imposes considerable burdens on children and families.1 Although survival to 40 years is predicted for children born in 1990s, the median age of death in 2003 was 24.2 years .The pathophysiological features of CF are produced by a defective (...) class='Hi'>gene on chromosome 7, resulting in the defective production of a protein that regulates cellular ion transport. Defective ion transport is thought to lead to increased mucus viscosity , with poor airway clearance, recurrent bacterial infection, lung damage, and death.Gene therapy , the insertion of a normally functioning gene into deficient host cells using a suitable vector, is a potential treatment or cure for diseases produced by single gene defects—for example, CF. Gene therapy does, however, have potential or actual risks, leading many to suggest that evidence of efficacy in adults should be demonstrated before trials are conducted in children. Many serious diseases in adults such as CF have their onset in childhood. If early treatment provides greater hopes of benefit, children may be more appropriate targets for GT in CF than adults. It may be unethical to deny them access to properly constructed, ethically approved clinical trials from which they might benefit.Since research in children should be scientifically valid, in the child’s best interests, and the subject of valid consent, this article will consider these parameters in relation to trials of GT in children with CF. Because of the importance of consumer participation in the design of research we present the results of a questionnaire about GT trials delivered …. (shrink)

Cytokinins are plant hormones which have long been associated with cell division and plastid differentiation. Recently, they have been found to play a central role also in the growth of plant tumors. Certain phytopathogenic bacteria, notably Agrobacterium tumefaciens and Pseudomonas syringae pv. savastanoi, can incite tumors on dicotyledonous plants and such tumors exhibit growth which is characteristic of the presence of excess auxin and cytokinin. Genes specifying cytokinin biosynthesis have now been isolated from both sets of bacteria. The genes encode (...) prenyl transferase responsible for cytokinin biosynthesis which, upon expression in E. coli,cause the production of the active cytokinin, zeatin. Expression of these genes in association with the plant is responsible for at least part of the tumor phenotype, although the molecular mechanisms of infection by these bacteria are apparently quite dissimilar. There is extensive homology between the cytokinin biosynthetic genes from the two sets of bacteria. (shrink)

The rapidly increasing wealth of genomic data has driven the development of tools to assist in the task of representing and processing information about genes, their products and their functions. One of the most important of these tools is the Gene Ontology (GO), which is being developed in tandem with work on a variety of bioinformatics databases. An examination of the structure of GO, however, reveals a number of problems, which we believe can be resolved by taking account of (...) certain organizing principles drawn from philosophical ontology. We shall explore the results of applying such principles to GO with a view to improving GO’s consistency and coherence and thus its future applicability in the automated processing of biological data. (shrink)

Hereditary retinal degeneration due to mutations in visual genes may be amenable to therapeutic interventions that modulate, either positively or negatively, the amount of protein product. Some of the proteins involved in phototransduction are rapidly moved by a lightdependent mechanism between the inner segment and the outer segment in rod photoreceptor cells, and this phenomenon is important in phototransduction.

Oversight of human gene transfer research presents an important model with potential application to oversight of nanobiology research on human participants. Gene therapy oversight adds centralized federal review at the National Institutes of Health's Office of Biotechnology Activities and its Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee to standard oversight of human subjects research at the researcher's institution and at the federal level by the Office for Human Research Protections. The Food and Drug Administration's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research oversees (...) human gene transfer research in parallel, including approval of protocols and regulation of products. This article traces the evolution of this dual oversight system; describes how the system is already addressing nanobiotechnology in gene transfer: evaluates gene therapy oversight based on public opinion, the literature, and preliminary expert elicitation; and offers lessons of the gene therapy oversight experience for oversight of nanobiotechnology. (shrink)

The production of genetic knowledge -- Scientific and economic strength of genetic reductionism -- Policy implications : discourses of genetic enlightenment as new disciplinary devices -- Genetic conceptualizations of normality and the idea of genetic justice -- Beyond genetic universality and authenticity, the lure of the genetic underclass -- Previews of the future as background -- Economic and actuarial perspective on genetics and insurance -- Practical and normative arguments against genetic exceptionalist legislation -- The changing social role of private insurance (...) : risk as a new representational regime. (shrink)

Sexually reproducing metazoans establish a cell lineage during development that is ultimately dedicated to gamete production. Work in a variety of animals suggests that a group of conserved molecular determinants act in this germ line maintenance and function. The most universal of these genes are Vasa and Vasa‐like DEAD‐box RNA helicase genes. However, recent evidence indicates that Vasa genes also function in other cell types, distinct from the germ line. Here we evaluate our current understanding of Vasa function and its (...) regulation during development, addressing Vasa's emerging role in multipotent cells. We also explore the evolutionary diversification of the N‐terminal domain of this gene and how this impacts the association of Vasa with nuage‐like perinuclear structures. (shrink)

Analysing cylindromatosis and the associated defects in the CYLD gene is providing novel insights into the molecular principles of epithelial growth control and carcinogenesis in, and beyond, the skin. In this review, we summarize the histopathology and histogenesis of cylindromas, and the available genetic information on patients with these skin appendage tumors. Focusing on recent data concerning the normal functions and signaling interactions of the CYLD gene product, we explain how CYLD interferes with TNF‐α or TLR‐mediated signaling (...) as well as with JNK or NF‐κB‐dependent p65/50 signaling to limit inflammation. In addition, we delineate how CYLD interferes with activation of the proto‐oncogene Bcl3 and with cyclin D1 expression to limit tumorigenesis, and chart how tumor growth‐promoting agents or UV light and inflammatory mediators can activate CYLD. We argue that these recent insights into CYLD function and cylindroma pathogenesis may lead to the development of novel molecular strategies for cancer prevention and treatment. BioEssays 29:1203–1214, 2007. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

The automatic integration of information resources in the life sciences is one of the most challenging goals facing biomedical informatics today. Controlled vocabularies have played an important role in realizing this goal, by making it possible to draw together information from heterogeneous sources secure in the knowledge that the same terms will also represent the same entities on all occasions of use. One of the most impressive achievements in this regard is the Gene Ontology (GO), which is rapidly acquiring (...) the status of a de facto standard in the field of gene and gene product annotations, and whose methodology has been much intimated in attempts to develop controlled vocabularies for shared use in different domains of biology. The GO Consortium has recognized, however, that its controlled vocabulary as currently constituted is marked by several problematic features - features which are characteristic of much recent work in bioinformatics and which are destined to raise increasingly serious obstacles to the automatic integration of biomedical information in the future. Here, we survey some of these problematic features, focusing especially on issues of compositionality and syntactic regimentation. (shrink)

Gene editing techniques, such as CRISPR, are being heralded as powerful new tools for delivering agricultural products and foods with a variety of beneficial traits quickly, easily, and cheaply. Proponents are concerned, however, about whether the public will accept the new technology and that excessive regulatory oversight could limit the technology’s potential. In this paper, we draw on the sociotechnical imaginaries literature to examine how proponents are imagining the potential benefits and risks of gene editing technologies within agriculture. (...) We derive our data from a content analysis of public comments submitted to the Food and Drug Administration’s 2017 docket titled “Genome Editing in New Plant Varieties Used for Food.” Our sample frame consists of 26 comments representing 30 agriculture and biotech companies, organizations, and trade associations. Our findings reveal three key sociotechnical imaginaries, including that gene editing technologies in agriculture: are not GMO but instead equivalent to traditional plant breeding; have the potential to usher in a new Green Revolution; and could facilitate the democratization of agricultural biotechnologies. We argue that forming and projecting these collective interpretations of the potential of gene editing technologies for crops and foods plays an important role in efforts by proponents to influence regulatory oversight, modes of governance, and build public acceptance. This research contributes to calls by science and technology studies scholars to investigate emergent concerns and imaginaries for novel technoscientific advances to help inform upstream models of public engagement and governance decisions. (shrink)

This chapter discusses some of the practical consequences of the recent and evolving situation in both science and industry, and forecasts how altering the law might affect each. It considers at least three possibilities: (1) justice demands eradicating patenting genes no matter what the consequences, (2) justice and economic efficiency demand altering the current system to meet both concerns, or (3) the economic effects of altering or eradicating the present system outweigh both the concerns of justice or economic efficiency, and (...) so the status quo should be maintained. The chapter explores each of these possibilities with an eye toward actually proposing rational public policy scenarios that could be adopted. Open Source essentially amounts to the ideal methods of the sciences applied to products in the marketplace. DNA in its natural state is the object of discovery and therefore the domain of science. (shrink)

“Challenging the utility of polygenic scores for social science” is a compelling but limited critique. Phenotypic development is sensitive to both initial conditions and all subsequent states – from conception to senescence. Thus, gene-centric analyses are misleading (and often meaningless) because gene products are transformed, and their phenotypic ‘effects' combined and attenuated with successive propagations from molecular and cellular contexts to organismal and social environments.

Transposons are well‐known architects of genetic change but their role in insecticide resistance has, until recently, only been speculated upon.1 Transposon insertion, or transposon‐mediated transposition, could alter either metabolic enzymes capable of degrading pesticides or could change the functionality of insecticide targets. The recent work of Aminetzach and coworkers2 suggests an exciting alternative, that transposon insertion can cause resistance by altering gene product function. This hypothesis is discussed in the light of other examples in which transposons have been (...) implicated in insecticide resistance. BioEssays 28:6–8, 2006. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

There are an increasing number of cell therapy approaches being studied and employed world‐wide. An emerging area in this field is the use of human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) products for the treatment of injuries/diseases that cannot be effectively managed through current approaches. However, as with any cell therapy, vast numbers of functional and safe cells are required. Bioreactors provide an attractive avenue to generate clinically relevant cell numbers with decreased labour and decreased batch to batch variation. Yet, current methods (...) of performing quality control are not readily scalable to the cell densities produced during bioreactor scale‐up. One potential solution is the application of inducible/controllable suicide genes that can trigger cell death in unwanted cell types. These types of approaches have been demonstrated to increase the quality and safety of the resultant cell products. In this review, we will provide background on these approaches and how they could be used together with bioreactor technology to create effective bioprocesses for the generation of high quality and safe hPSCs for use in regenerative medicine approaches. (shrink)

Cell interdivision periods (IDP) in homogenous cell populations vary stochastically. Another aspect of probabilistic cell behavior is randomness in cell differentiation. These features are suggested to result from competing stochastic events of assembly/disassembly of the transcription pre‐initiation complex (PIC) at gene promoters. The time needed to assemble a proper PIC from different proteins, which must be numerous enough to make their combination gene specific, may be comparable to the IDP. Nascent mRNA visualization at defined genes and inferences from (...) protein level fluctuations in single cells suggest that some genes do operate in this way. The onset of mRNA production by such genes may miss the time windows provided by the cell cycle, resulting in cells differentiating into those in which the respective mRNAs are either present or absent. This creates a way to generate cell phenotype diversity in multicellular organisms. (shrink)

US law has until recently treated unmodified and merely “isolated” genes as a form of intellectual property. Patents protect processes, methods, manufactures, and compositions of matter. Legal theorists and intellectual property scholars have similarly weighed in on the patentability of genes, often uncritical of the strained lines of reasoning that made first “isolated and purified” products of nature patentable, or simply weighing the costs vs. benefits. In the early fifteenth century, the first robust institutionalized forms of intellectual property protection emerged (...) in Europe. This chapter examines the theory of intellectual property implicit in its historical development and looks more closely at the question of whether genes belong to the general category “intellectual property.” The purpose of intellectual property law is to encourage innovation, to discourage secret‐keeping, and to move new knowledge into the public domain after a period of time. (shrink)

The up‐ and down‐regulation of the salivary gland secretion protein (Sgs) genes during the third larval instar of Drosophila melanogaster are controlled by fluctuations of the titre of the steroid hormone 20‐hydroxyecdysone (20E). Induction of these genes by a low hormone titre is a secondary response to 20E mediated by products of 20E‐induced ‘early’ genes. Surprisingly, in the case of the Sgs‐4 gene this response also requires a direct contribution of the 20E‐receptor complex. A model is presented which proposes (...) that the Sgs genes, and other 20E‐regulated genes with similar temporal expression profiles, are regulated by complex hormone response units. The hormonal signal is effectively transmitted by these response units only after binding of additional factors, e.g. secretion enhancer binding proteins, which act together in a synergistic manner with the 20E receptor and early gene products to establish a stage‐ and tissuespecific expression pattern. (shrink)

The legal status of the human body is hotly contested, yet the law of the body remains in a state of confusion and chaos. Sometimes the body is treated as an object of property, sometimes it is dealt with under the rubric of contract, and sometimes it is not conceived as property at all, but rather as the subject of privacy rights. Which body of law should become the law of the body? This question is even more pressing in the (...) context of current biomedical research, which permits commodification and commercialization of the body by everyone except the person who provides the “raw materials.” The lack of property protection for tangible parts of the human body is in stark contrast to the extensive protection granted to intellectual property in the body in the form of patents upon human genes and cell lines. Moreover, even courts that reject ownership claims on the part of those who supply body parts appear willing to grant property rights to scientists, universities, and others who use those body parts to conduct research and create products. (shrink)

The 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico included innovative practices and technological knowledge of human biology. The first time that cytogenetic techniques had been applied to athletes was in the 1966 European Athletics Championship in Budapest and used on Olympic athletes for the first time in Mexico in 1968. The Genetics and Human Biology Program was created for this purpose in 1966 in close collaboration with the Local Organizing Committee, by Mexican geneticists Alfonso León de Garay and Rodolfo Félix Estrada who (...) led the project. The main objective was to study the genetic and anthropological components which determine an Olympic athlete’s abilities. This investigation studied 1,265 game participants and included family studies, cytological analyses, research on single genes, and the study of sex determination. In terms of influence beyond Mexico, this Program was significant as a site of transnational collaboration. It mobilized cognitive and financial resources, scientific practices, and material culture to set up a clinical laboratory in the Olympic Village. The Program also hosted three international seminars in Mexico City, two before the games, to calibrate clinical trials and anthropological tests. One in 1969 to analyze the results and proceed to their publication in 1974. This manuscript will focus on the PGBH to show how its work fits in the larger tapestry of post-1945 human biological studies. Also, to explore how the Olympic athlete populations studied can be considered laboratories of knowledge production or sites of cognition conceived as specific entities for scientific inquiry, standardization of medical practices, and the production or application of medicines. Finally, through the narrative of the different trajectories and collaborations of the leaders of the PGBH, this manuscript will show how contact between their scientific practices brought cytogenetics and sports together. (shrink)