Article ID: CBB238032821

“Treasure your exceptions!” (William Bateson, 1908): leggi e variazioni nella genetica mendeliana (2017)

unapi

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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Authors & Contributors
Sheldon, Myrna Perez
Richmond, Marsha L.
Radick, Gregory
Bertoldi, Nicola
Yafeng Shan
Pareti, Germana
Concepts
Genetics
Mendelism
Biology
Heredity
Evolution
Darwinism
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
20th century, early
20th century, late
18th century
21st century
Places
Great Britain
Germany
Institutions
Cambridge University
Royal Society of London
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