Genome complexity: Shapiro review (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, August 07, 2013, 02:07 (4127 days ago) @ David Turell

Very exhaustive coverage with pages and pages of references:-"The preceding discussion presents a large but far from exhaustive catalogue of
molecular tools that cells possess to make controlled inscriptions in their genomes over all biological time scales. The empirical evidence for biological action in hereditary genome changes has become so overwhelming that it is surprising how widespread the notion of accidental change still remains. (my bold)-"There is broad recognition that cells have elaborate molecular regulatory circuits and DNA formatting (section 1) to control the timing and location of genome movements,replication, expression and repair [13]. These events occur at the shortest biological time scale. Although we know less of the details, there is a similar recognition that epigenetic chromatin formatting is subject to a comparable regulatory regime at intermediate biological time scales [254, 255].
However, there is virtually no recognition that the longest-term genome inscriptions by DNA restructuring are subject to cellular control circuits. The reasons for this confusion are philosophical rather than empirical. They date back to the evolutionary debates of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. These philosophical prejudices notwithstanding, the empirical data is
clear that DNA changes are equally subject to short-term and epigenetic regulation."-http://shapiro.bsd.uchicago.edu/Shapiro.2013.How%20Life%20Changes%20Itself-%20The%20Read-Write%20(RW)%20Genome.Physics%20of%20Life%20Reviews.pdf