Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 18 May 2001:
Vol. 292. no. 5520, pp. 1315 - 1316
DOI: 10.1126/science.1060852
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Perspectives

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION:
Can Genes Explain Biological Complexity?

Eörs Szathmáry, Ferenc Jordán, Csaba Pál

When it comes to the complexity of organisms we immediately think of behavioral or morphological complexity or perhaps wish to count the number of cells in an organism or the number of genes in the organism's genome. As Szathmáry et al. explain in their Perspective, biological complexity is not that simple. With the completed sequences of yeast, worm, fly, and human at hand, it is now clear that the number of genes cannot account for the complexity of organisms (the fly genome has about 25,000 genes and we only have about 35,000). The Perspective authors discuss whether we should think about complexity in terms of interactions among gene-regulation networks, using equations similar to those used by ecologists to determine the multitudinous interactions within food webs.

The authors are in the Collegium Budapest (Institute for Advanced Study), 2 Szentháromság u., H-1014 Budapest, Hungary. E-mail: szathmary{at}colbud.hu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Gene-Centric Genomewide Association Study via Entropy.
Y. Cui, G. Kang, K. Sun, M. Qian, R. Romero, and W. Fu (2008)
Genetics 179, 637-650
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Organismal complexity, cell differentiation and gene expression: human over mouse.
A. E. Vinogradov and O. V. Anatskaya (2007)
Nucleic Acids Res. 35, 6350-6356
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
'Genome design' model and multicellular complexity: golden middle.
A. E. Vinogradov (2006)
Nucleic Acids Res. 34, 5906-5914
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Estimating the tempo and mode of gene family evolution from comparative genomic data.
M. W. Hahn, T. De Bie, J. E. Stajich, C. Nguyen, and N. Cristianini (2005)
Genome Res. 15, 1153-1160
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Xenobiotics and the Evolution of Multicellular Animals: Emergence and Diversification of Ligand-Activated Transcription Factors.
M. E. Baker (2005)
Integr. Comp. Biol. 45, 172-178
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Are Genome Evolution, Organism Complexity and Species Diversity Linked?.
E. J. Stellwag (2004)
Integr. Comp. Biol. 44, 358-365
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Computational comparative analyses of alternative splicing regulation using full-length cDNA of various eukaryotes.
H. ITOH, T. WASHIO, and M. TOMITA (2004)
RNA 10, 1005-1018
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Combinatorial Synthesis of Genetic Networks.
C&a.;l. C. Guet, M. B. Elowitz, W. Hsing, and S. Leibler (2002)
Science 296, 1466-1470
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Alternative splicing, muscle contraction and intraspecific variation: associations between troponin T transcripts, Ca2+ sensitivity and the force and power output of dragonfly flight muscles during oscillatory contraction.
J. H. Marden, G. H. Fitzhugh, M. Girgenrath, M. R. Wolf, and S. Girgenrath (2002)
J. Exp. Biol. 204, 3457-3470
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »

E-Letters:

Read all E-Letters

Perhaps
Tom Layloff
Science Online, 1 Jun 2001 [Full text]

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)