“Treasure your exceptions!” (William Bateson, 1908): leggi e variazioni nella genetica mendeliana (2017)
Fantini, Bernardino (Author)
Mefisto: Rivista di medicina, filosofia, storia
Volume: 1
Issue: 1
Pages: 145-172
The methods and theoretical principles of genetics constitute a theoretical paradox. It is perhaps the only biological discipline in which we can speak of ‘laws’ or rules of universal validity (Mendel’s laws, the central dogma of molecular biology, the genetic code), but at the same time all its explanatory framework is based on the identification of mutations, the ‘exceptions’ to the rigid regularity of hereditary transmission. A character that is transmitted unchanged remains silent. Only when it changes, producing inheritable variations, it becomes visible for the observer and allows us to trace the hereditary factors that determine it. The exceptions are therefore the tool for the understanding of the rules of inheritance. Mutations are also the source of the variability within the populations which is the basis of evolution by natural selection. Life is therefore the result of the fruitful synthesis between rules and exceptions, between chance and necessity.
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