Article ID: CBB808879921

Hierarchy, Determinism, and Specificity in Theories of Development and Evolution (2017)

unapi

The concepts of hierarchical organization, genetic determinism and biological specificity (for example of species, biologically relevant macromolecules, or genes) have played a crucial role in biology as a modern experimental science since its beginnings in the nineteenth century. The idea of genetic information (specificity) and genetic determination was at the basis of molecular biology that developed in the 1940s with macromolecules, viruses and prokaryotes as major objects of research often labelled “reductionist”. However, the concepts have been marginalized or rejected in some of the research that in the late 1960s began to focus additionally on the molecularization of complex biological structures and functions using systems approaches. This paper challenges the view that ‘molecular reductionism’ has been successfully replaced by holism and a focus on the collective behaviour of cellular entities. It argues instead that there are more fertile replacements for molecular ‘reductionism’, in which genomics, embryology, biochemistry, and computer science intertwine and result in research that is as exact and causally predictive as earlier molecular biology.

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB808879921/

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Authors & Contributors
Merlin, Francesca
Dietrich, Michael R.
Samida, Stefanie
Leitão, Henrique
Walsby, A. E.
ByrneSim, Bay Lauris
Concepts
Molecular biology
Genetics
Evolution
Developmental biology
Biology
Evolutionary developmental biology
Time Periods
20th century, late
21st century
20th century
20th century, early
Places
Portugal
Australia
Institutions
Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC)
Johns Hopkins University
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