Griffiths, Paul E. (2017) Genetic, epigenetic and exogenetic information in development and evolution. [Preprint]
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Abstract
The idea that development is the expression of information accumulated during evolution and that heredity is the transmission of this information is surprisingly hard to cash out in strict, scientific terms. This paper seeks to do so using the sense of information introduced by Francis Crick in his sequence hypothesis and central dogma of molecular biology. It focuses on Crick's idea of precise determination. This is analysed using an information-theoretic measure of causal specificity. This allows us to reconstruct some of Crick's claims about information in transcription and translation. Crick's approach to information has natural extensions to non-coding regions of DNA, to epigenetic marks, and to the genetic or environmental upstream causes of those epigenetic marks. Epigenetic information cannot be reduced to genetic information. The existence of biological information in epigenetic and exogenetic factors is relevant to evolution as well as to development.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
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| Keywords: | Genetic information, epigenetics, specificity | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Biology > Developmental Biology Specific Sciences > Biology > Evolutionary Theory |
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| Depositing User: | Professor Paul Edmund Griffiths | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 16 Mar 2018 16:40 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 16 Mar 2018 16:40 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 14476 | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Interface Focus | ||||||
| Publisher: | The Royal Society | ||||||
| Official URL: | http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/7/5... | ||||||
| DOI or Unique Handle: | https://doi.org/10.1098/rsfs.2016.0152 | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Biology > Developmental Biology Specific Sciences > Biology > Evolutionary Theory |
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| Date: | 18 August 2017 | ||||||
| Volume: | 7 | ||||||
| Number: | 5 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/14476 |
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Genetic, epigenetic and exogenetic information in development and evolution. (deposited 09 Mar 2018 18:35)
- Genetic, epigenetic and exogenetic information in development and evolution. (deposited 16 Mar 2018 16:40) [Currently Displayed]
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