In Praise of Diversity The Orchestra of Genetics

In praise of diversity: the orcherstra of genetics file:///Users/adanchin/Documents/Fichiers_actifs/Pages_HTML/WW...
IN PRAISE OF DIVERSITY
SC I EN C E PHI LO SO PHY I N D U STRY TEA C H I N G PO PULARI SATI O N CONTACT

SI TE M AP RELEASE NOTES
T he human
genome
orchestra
© 2019 A nt oine D anc h in 唐
善•安東
This page is an adaptation of an

article published in French in the
magazine BoOks, n°101 in
Praise the disheveled, praise october 2019: « Races, pourquoi
the sleek; le débat est faussé ». We propose
Austerity and hearts-and- the image of the orchestra and the
flowers; score it plays as a metaphor
People who turn the other explaining the link between genotype
cheek and phenotype. We also recall that we
And extroverts who take have known since the time of Vicq
cold showers; d'Azyr that it is possible to constitute
Saints we can name a holy well-formed classes that do not share
day for all the traits that compose them.
And infidels the saints can
Constructing classes to
pray for.
understand reality
Praise youth for pulling Science did not appear in its modern
things apart, form until 2,500 years ago. The
Toppling the idols, breaking conditions of its birth presupposed
leases; that the human animal should
Then from the upset apple- organize a coherent view of itself
cart what it could recognise from its
1 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
Praise oldsters picking up environment. To this end, it was first

the pieces. necessary to classify events or
Praise wisdom, hard to be a objects of interest into recognisable
friend to, families, and then to study and
And folly one can understand the relationships between
condescend to. them. This is how the ancient
astronomers began what was to
In Praise of Diversity
become cosmology, by establishing a
Phyllis McGinley
catalogue of stars. By making
assumed classes, they recorded the
Relat ed t opics position of these luminaries in the sky
(still dark at the time), their luminosity
Order, disorder, and their local density. Because they
cruelty had noticed the regularity of their
The human genome course in the cycle of the seasons,
project astronomers discovered the moving
The influenza virus stars, the planets. Science begins
when we notice the return of things.
Glossary Later, with the birth of optics, it
became possible to characterize
stars much better, notably by their
colour and shape (some are
galaxies). To go further and
investigate the forces at work in the
organization of the Universe, it
became necessary to group these
countless objects into well-defined
classes. This is when true cosmology
was born. Similarly, living species,
collected and recognized one by one,
as at the birth of botany in treatises
such as Theophrastus' The History
of the Plants Περὶ φυτῶν ἱστορία
(fourth century BC), only began to
make sense when they were put into
classes, according to their kinship.
2 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
For this purpose, it was necessary for

researchers to find descriptive
characters that were fairly constant in
individuals of a group of plants, so
that they could be identified as an
authentic type.
It was soon realised that the

formation of classes depended on the
number of characters used to
describe the elements of the class. It
is simple to catalogue the individuals
belonging to a population using a
single character (for example, for
peas, those with white flowers and
those with coloured flowers). The
situation became more complicated
when several characteristics were
considered simultaneously.
Classification methods then had to
look for ways to organise individuals,
labelled with a very large number of
characters (both macroscopic and
microscopic, if relevant analysis
methods are available) into natural
classes. In order to form a class, a
measure of distance between the
different characters as they appear in
the individuals in the study had to be
associated. It was in the second half
of the 18th century that scientific
discussion focused on this issue.
Félix Vicq d'Azyr, a precursor of
comparative anatomy and a keen
animal physiologist, was interested in
the characteristics of classification,
as can be seen in the articles he
3 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
signed in the Great Encyclopaedia

(edited by Diderot and d'Alembert):
« The second way of disposing plants
is called method by botanists. It is an
arrangement based on the
concurrence of several characters
taken from the most essential parts of
the plants, with the aid of which we
succeed in bringing together those
which resemble each other the most;
and then build up what are called
natural families. » (1) Elsewhere, he
observed that to form a natural class
it is not necessary that all the
individuals of the class share all the
elements used to define it: « A
natural class results from the
assembly of a number of species
which are held together by a greater
number of features than exist
between each of them and the
species of the other classes. For an
individual to be part of a class,
considered from this point of view, it
is not necessary for it to gather all the
characters; it suffices that it offers the
greatest number of them; whence it
follows that it would be possible for a
class to be very natural, and that
there was not a single character
common to all the species that
compose it. » (2) This observation,
which is counter-intuitive for those
unfamiliar with the scientific method,
is at the heart of all current
classification methods.
4 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
Once the natural classes have been

formed, we can go further by
observing that certain families of
characteristics are simultaneously
present or simultaneously absent in
the entity of interest. As a result, we
may want to group them together and
see how, from this grouping, new
classes can be formed. This is how
botany was born, which is now
illustrated in this primitive form and
available in the archives of many
British families, as in the Handbook
of the British Flora A description of
the Flowering Plants and Ferns
Indigenous to or Naturalised in the
British Isles by George Bentham
(1858 first edition 1800-1884 widely
present in 1918 and continuously
reprinted since) or for those familiar
of Hong Kong, the Flora
Hongkongensis published in 1861.
Shortly before Vicq d'Azyr's

reflection, Carl Linnaeus had had the
intelligence to notice that the most
important characters that led to a
classification of living beings were the
characters responsible for their
generation, their sexual organs
(stamens and pistil in plants). It then
became apparent that the natural
classes of living organisms were
distinguished by a unique original
character, the need for their members
to be interbreeding. It was then
5 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
possible to define what we now

recognise as a species.
Subsequently, the grouping of living
organisms by proximity, using
increasingly general characters, led
to the idea of genus (a coherent
group of species), then families and
more general classes. For example,
the common pea (Pisum sativum L.)
is part of the sativum species of the
genus Pisum (which is not italicised
when referring to the genus alone)
and of the family Leguminosae. In
this way, plants have been grouped
into more and more general classes,
up to the separation of plants and
animals, for example. We can also
operate and attempt a finer
classification, and identify races
within species
Alongside the scientific description as

a prelude to the search for the
causes of what defines living things,
and in accordance with the interests
of the time, came the question of the
'usefulness' of natural classes. This
in a world progressively dominated
by a certain idea of human well-
being, based on pleasure or the
possession of various goods. This
idea introduced a hidden - and
dangerous because hidden -
ideological bias into the
classifications. Some species -
plants, animals or even microbes -
are considered useful and have been
6 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
domesticated throughout human

history. Depending on the location
and the tastes of their owners,
individuals of the same species have
been selected over the generations
to express different characteristics,
thanks to the control of their
reproduction. This was initially based
on very random choices, but became
more and more precise as knowledge
of the mechanisms of heredity was
understood and informed selection
was progressively refined. This
selection is the basis of how you can
choose your cows for their milk or
meat. This is how many well-
characterised cattle breeds have
been created and maintained over
the centuries. Of course, as we
remain within the same species,
individuals of different breeds
interbreed, but this affects the
properties of their offspring, and their
corresponding 'utility'. To go further, it
is important to understand how
individuals of the same species can
be different, and what this means in
terms of their biological nature and
the future of their offspring.
Human polymorphism
Unlike many animals (but certainly

not all animals: think of the rat, for
example), Man is exceptionally
adaptable. This is evident in the
variety of places where the human
7 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
animal can live. However, it is often

forgotten that the most important
reason for this adaptability is man's
ability to resist disease. We live today
because our ancestors resisted
smallpox, the plague and more
recently influenza. Living in hot, dry,
cold and humid regions means that
we encounter an infinite variety of
pathogens, bacteria, viruses and
parasites, which differ from place to
place. This remarkable characteristic,
as we know it today, comes from the
fact that evolution has equipped us
with an extraordinary arsenal of
defence. This arsenal is based, first
of all, on the defensive control
systems located on the surface of our
cells, which enable them to prevent
recognition of or interact with these
different pathogens in such a way as
to divert their virulence. The way out
found by natural selection is simple:
the cells of human individuals are
covered on their surface with
extremely polymorphic structures,
which differ from one person to
another. If one person is infected with
a dangerous pathogen, his or her
neighbour - often even within the
same family - will not be infected,
simply because the pathogen fails to
adhere to the surface of his or her
cells. One might think that it would
have been sufficient to limit the
surface structures to a set not
8 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
recognised by the pathogens, but this

would be to forget that the pathogens
have a very large number of
descendants and that they evolve.
Allowing an interaction with one of
these structures is so advantageous
that sooner or later a descendant of
the pathogen will have discovered it.
The resistance solution found by
evolution has been to multiply the
catalogue of structural variants on the
cell surface. Of course, as the
number of pathogens is unlimited, the
number of variants needed to avoid
infection is itself unlimited. The
solution was then to share the
resistance, by spreading it among a
large number of individuals. The
selective interest of this
polymorphism, cruel to the person
who will be contaminated, is
extremely advantageous for the
whole population: during a pandemic,
there are always people who will not
be affected or for whom the disease
will be mild. This incompatibility
between cells is not limited to
pathogens - evolution has no rational
purpose - it also extends to the cells
of different people. We all know that
this problem of recognition arises
when we have to undergo an organ
or tissue transplant: we have to find a
"compatible" donor. So we are all
different. Is it important to understand
this characteristic of our heredity?
9 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
The question of transplants of course

provides a positive answer. It is
therefore very useful to classify
human beings according to the
characteristics (genetically inherited,
therefore identifiable in their genome)
of the surface of their cells,
characterised by their "major
histocompatibility complex", HLA
(ἱστος means cell tissue in Greek,
and HLA stands for "Human
Leukocyte Antigen").
To make things clearer, an example,

extreme in its simplicity, illustrates the
value of classifications. In this
example, individuals are divided into
only two classes. It was discovered
some years ago that patients with
narcolepsy (spontaneous involuntary
sleep, a very disabling disease)
became ill after having had a severe
flu. Long an enigma, the reason for
this surprising association is now
understood. The influenza virus - but
not just any type of virus, the H1N1
virus - is recognised by some people
thanks to a particular HLA (DR15
DQB1*0602), which is present in
more than 20% of the European
population. This recognition triggers a
very effective immune response
against the virus, with a destruction
of the infected cells so that the virus
cannot multiply and spread in the
infected person. This response
occurs after specialised 'killer' cells
10 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
have exposed a marker of the viral

surface to their own surface. This
should provide effective protection.
Unfortunately, this marker is, by
accident, identical to a neuropeptide
(a brain mediator specialising in the
transmission of nerve impulses)
whose role is to control sleep. Two
symmetrical brain ganglia secrete
this peptide. Due to the antiviral
defence response in the patient, they
were identified and destroyed by the
host immune system because they
were mistaken for the influenza virus!
(3) It is therefore advisable to warn
the relevant carriers in case of an
H1N1 epidemic, but, unfortunately,
we can only advise them to avoid
human contacts in case of epidemic.
This is because vaccination with the
whole virus —if it uses an effective
vaccine— would be prohibited in this
case because, just as the virus does,
the vaccine would trigger the
disease. This data is important for the
vaccination policy —it will be possible
to make a vaccine without the
incriminated peptide— in particular
because it avoids accidents that
would be pinpointed by opponents to
vaccination, and go against a
practice whose beneficial effects are
massive, populationwise. Here again
we see that the interest of a given
person may go against the interest of
a population. This is a very well-
11 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
documented example of a genetic

character, spread all over the world
but whose frequency varies
according to the geography of
populations, which it is certainly very
interesting to know.
Phenotype and genotype: most

characters are multigenic
So far, we have analysed only one

family of traits, remarkable for their
polymorphism in the human
population. This family leads to the
formation of natural classes, those
that distinguish individuals according
to their HLA. There are more than
20,000 genes in the human genome,
and stories like this could be told for
each of them. However, their
polymorphism is highly variable.
Some genes whose product is crucial
vary very little, and their variants are
the cause of those "orphan genetic
diseases" that make headlines.
Knowing the distribution of these
genes and their many variants in
human populations is therefore
particularly important. To do this, we
need to associate each individual
with a set of specific traits - a
phenotype - and then see if and how
they can be grouped into natural
classes. Here we see a new and
risky question, as it may harbour a
hidden ideology, the one that decides
which traits will be retained and then
12 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
operates the classification. Because

of our necessary anthropocentrism
and the constraints of our cultures,
human beings are probably a poor
model for reasoning about
classification methods and their
consequences. This is not without
implications for human genetics, for
example, because political
correctness can make a choice in the
characters selected, favouring some,
while forbidding the notation of other
characters despite their importance. I
will illustrate the method with a
domestic animal, the cow (Bos
taurus).
This animal is familiar to all of us.

This familiarity comes from the fact
that we recognise this animal by its
shape, or its behaviour. The set of
characteristics we have selected
forms its phenotype. However, this
phenotype is not limited, it depends
on our motivated interest for this
animal. The industrial interest will
retain: the productivity and the quality
of the animal's milk, its meat, but also
its resistance to disease, the length
of its gestation, the number of
pregnancies and the number of
calves, longevity, etc. Breeders who
are familiar with these animals also
recognise characteristics such as
"beauty" (yes, there is such a thing
as a beautiful cow and it is carefully
defined and awarded in agricultural
13 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
competitions), coat colour, horn

shape, weight, volume and
temperature of the rumen, behaviour
(solitary, social, suitable for automatic
milking, etc.). In addition to these
macroscopic (visible) characteristics,
there are microscopic characteristics,
often invisible, which are revealed
macroscopically at the time of the
appearance of a disease, for
example, or by the analysis of the
animal's blood. It is thus possible to
compile a list of hundreds or even
thousands of phenotypic
characteristics and then analyse how
they can be organised into natural
classes. It should be noted that there
are many well-characterised breeds
of cattle (in France: Charolais,
Montbéliarde, Normande, Salers...
and the ubiquitous Prim'Holstein),
and a multitude of intermediate
individuals, resulting from
hybridisation between individuals of
different breeds. So far, nothing
surprising, except that these breeds
can dissolve very quickly into a more
or less homogeneous mixture, which
indicates that the boundary between
breeds is necessarily blurred due to
generalised inter-fertility within the
same species.
Genetics has made it possible to go

further and understand how these
breeds are formed and how they
evolve spontaneously. Indeed, the
14 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
phenotypic characteristics that define

the breeds can be associated with a
new knowledge, that of the DNA of
the animals, their genome, which
defines the genetic program of their
constitution, their survival capacity
and their reproduction. Better still,
this knowledge has made it possible
to discover how, from one generation
to the next, this program is
accidentally modified, revealing new
traits i[dentified mainly by the
appearance of negative traits, such
as CHARGE syndrome or the very
rare profound deafness, known as
Tietz syndrome (4)] similar to what is
observed in human genetic
"diseases". But the most striking
knowledge derived from the coupling
of knowledge of a complex
phenotype and a genotype was that
the situation where a gene is directly
associated with a specific trait is the
exception rather than the rule. In
practice, no gene functions alone.
The products it encodes interact with
others, encoded in other genes. All of
this forms complicated structures, like
the wheels of a clock, which are
made of soft matter, and which
animate us.
In this context, it must be understood

that the phenotype of a living
organism is 100% due to the patterns
outlined in its genotype (innate), and
100% due to environmental
15 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
constraints (acquired), whereas the

banal arguments that discuss
heredity seek to separate the innate
and the acquired. Innate is not at all
opposed to acquired, they are
orthogonal categories. An important
consequence is that it is not possible
to create a hierarchy between these
categories, they are simply not
comparable. There may be an order
in performance (which is the result of
a particular innate/acquired pair), but
that is all. And, in particular, one can
have identical performances from
different innate/acquired pairs. It
follows that the same phenotype can
be the expression of two different
genotypes. And the reverse is also
true.
To go further, let us take a metaphor

(partially inadequate like all
metaphors, but nevertheless quite
telling), that of a musical work
performed by a large orchestra.
When we attend the concert, it goes
without saying that everything
depends on both the score played
and the orchestra. The concert
depends 100% on the score and
100% on the orchestra. Moreover,
the score does not only give the
notes, but all sorts of indications: the
general tempo, the composer's state
of mind, the moment when each
musician should intervene, etc. And it
goes without saying that the
16 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
orchestra is not the only one to be

involved. And it goes without saying
that the psycho-physiological state of
the musicians, their style, etc. will
influence the interpretation of the
work. It also goes without saying that
the interpretation will never be free of
mistakes, false notes, errors in the
bars, which the musician will be able
to make up for, or which will be made
up for by his colleagues, etc. Each
performance will be unique. It may
also happen that the score has been
badly bound, that pages are missing,
that some are inverted, that others
are blurred or stained. It may have
been altered, corrected or amended.
Interpretation also depends on the
period in which the work is done, etc.
It is easy to understand what can and
will happen. It is regrettable that this
way of seeing the relationship
between the innate and the acquired,
which is obviously very
understandable, is not more
widespread among the general
public. Of course, there may be a
musical phrase played by a single
instrumentalist, where errors in the
score or execution will be very
visible, but in general the
performance comes from the
combined playing of several
musicians simultaneously. Thus, a
sick soloist will lead to a poor
performance, and similarly, if his
17 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
score is badly printed, the

interpretation will be poor, unless the
musician has a very good memory,
for example. But more often than not,
the end result will be a combination
of a large number of faults, in the
playing of the individual musicians, or
in what they read. It is easy to
understand that this situation is
analogous to monogenic (first case)
or polygenic (second case) genetic
diseases. And this takes into account
the familiar contribution of
"penetrance" and "terrain" in the
varied outcome, i.e. the observation
that the end result of the same
genetic abnormality (analogous to a
blurred or missing score played by
different musicians, some of whom
can only play very close to the score,
while others can easily remember
playing it in the past). What is
important to understand is the
dialogue between the performance
(the phenotype) and the program/
score (the genotype).
Here is a concrete illustration of this

dialogue, with a butterfly that used to
exist in France, Araschnia levana.
There are two forms, a spring form
called the "Fawn Map" and a summer
form, the "Brown Map". These two
forms are so different that it was long
thought that they were two species.
In reality, it is enough to raise the
caterpillars of this butterfly over
18 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
several generations (provided that

the cycle of the seasons, and of the
temperature in particular, is followed)
to see that they are a single species!
This is a particularly telling
demonstration of the role of the
environment in the expression of the
genetic program. If we then maintain
reproduction by keeping only the
winter cycle, we will have only one of
the two forms (the spring form), and if
we had started with the summer
form, we will have the impression that
an acquired character has become
hereditary.
Classification and evolutionary

history
We have seen the value of

classification as a prelude to
identifying causal relationships, as in
the case of human polymorphism
diseases. Another interest, of course,
would be to determine whether a
particular genetic inheritance may be
associated with drug side effects,
especially when they are severe. But
a particularly significant place for
classification is its relationship to
history. Making classes allows
investigators to propose family trees.
The genus Homo, which emerged as
a result of a genetic accident that
fused two chromosomes we share
with our ape cousins, forming our
long chromosome 2, led, most likely
19 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
in Africa, to the appearance of Homo

sapiens. This mobile and adaptable
animal probably invaded Europe on
several occasions, where another
hominid, Homo neanderthalensis -
the exact origin of this human
species is not known, as skeletons of
more primitive hominins are found in
Europe - had preceded it. And these
two species intermingled. The study
of the human genome has taught us
that Neanderthals and modern
humans have interbred in Europe at
least twice in the last 100,000 years.
As they were different species, most
of the Neanderthal DNA segments
introduced into modern humans were
quickly eliminated in the offspring of
the hybrid individuals. On the other
hand, some sequences hybridised
into the sapiens genome were
preserved, and if we put all the
Neanderthal fragments found in the
European genomes together, it is
possible to reconstitute almost half of
the ancestral Neanderthal genome!
Having emerged from Africa, and
poorly adapted to the viruses of
Europe, unlike the Neanderthals who
had been there for a long time,
modern humans gained a certain
number of adaptive genes thanks to
this interbreeding, offering their
descendants increased resistance to
these diseases. We see here that the
longest and most frequently
20 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
encountered segments of
Neanderthal ancestry in modern
humans are most likely adaptive.
They are indeed enriched in proteins
that interact with viruses. Regions
that code for factors that specifically
recognise RNA viruses - such as the
influenza virus - are more likely to
belong to segments of Neanderthal
ancestry in modern Europeans. From
these observations, we know that
conserved segments of Neanderthal
ancestry can be used to detect
ancient epidemics. A similar story is
also unfolding in Eastern Europe and
Asia with one or possibly more
crosses involving another hominin,
Denisova man. And here again a
selective advantage of interbreeding
appears, perhaps because
Denisova's ancestor had lived at high
altitude: Tibetans acquired from this
hominin a gene that allows them to
live at high altitude without suffering
from the blood problems encountered
by modern humans living on the
plains.
The formation of natural classes

makes it possible to recognise these
events and to understand their
timing. It also explains the difference
in susceptibility to diseases of
different human groups. And today
we can recognise four major natural
classes for modern man (and this
classification will be refined over
21 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
time). A first dichotomy distinguishes

between a group composed of
Western Europeans, Asians and
Oceanians, all of whom carry a
significant percentage of hominin
genomes other than Homo sapiens,
and a group composed of most of the
inhabitants of Sub-Saharan Africa.
The first group is further divided into
at least three, depending on the
amount of Denisova genome in their
own genome, with the Pacific
Islander group being particularly rich
in the Denisovan genome. Of course,
as we have seen above in relation to
domestication, the boundaries
between these natural classes are
blurred, and will become increasingly
so as a result of the great
movements of human populations
that we are experiencing today. In
some West African populations,
some Neanderthal genomic
sequences have been introduced
among people of certain ethnic
groups, making it possible to follow
human migrations throughout history.
Moreover, by knowing more human
genomes, we will better understand
this migratory adventure towards the
North and the East, which started
very early, probably with the
migration of the Neanderthal
ancestor.
Race and ideology
22 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
If it is true that the great stages of

science have often been preceded by
mapping or classification, it is
because a particular intention has
dominated these activities,
underpinned by a particular model of
the world. Thus the concept of race
arose from the exploitation of
domestication. This concept is an
avatar of classifications, which were
indispensable for defining the
concept of species. While it answers
the question of determining natural
classes of individuals within a large
population, a welcome intention for
deciding health policies for example,
or for understanding the history of the
human species, it has been plagued
by the superimposition of the idea of
the 'purity' of a race, since for
domestication it was important (it still
is) to avoid interbreeding. It is
amusing to note in this regard that if
there is a "pure" sapiens race, it is
obviously found among the African
populations... In fact, while this
question of interbreeding is of only
anecdotal importance when it comes
to most animal or plant species (it
may even be desirable, as when
mules are produced from a horse and
a donkey, and this will always require
the same procedure, as the mules
are not fertile, thus avoiding the
question of the purity of the
offspring), interbreeding is possible
23 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
and even probable and fertile, within

the same species.
As a result, particular phenotypic

traits, which may be valued for one
reason or another, will appear more
and more often, and apparently at
random. Moreover, some traits are
quickly masked by others, the so-
called "recessive" traits. It is a classic
observation that scarcity is very often
considered a value by human
societies. Scarcity has a price. This
implies that, if it is linked to a human
trait, it obliterates its dignity, as
Immanuel Kant noted [in the realm of
ends, everything has either a price or
a dignity (5)]. Modern genetics, alas,
perpetuates this ideology, as it uses
the pseudo-concept of "purification"
when genes change or disappear as
a result of mutations or when a
foreign DNA segment has been
introduced into a genome. In fact, the
latter type of "horizontal" gene
transfer - i.e. not through the direct
"vertical" pathway from parents to
offspring - is most often the result of
hybridisation, in multicellular species.
Moreover, the incompatibility that
arises between neighbouring but
different gene products requires the
management of an adjustment or
balancing in the offspring, which is
often achieved by the complete loss
of foreign genes. The disappearance
24 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
of a large part of the Neanderthal

genome among Europeans is not a
purge, but simply a differential effect
on the survival of individuals who
possess certain genes, to the benefit
of those who have lost them or
replaced them with a copy of a
homologous gene from the Homo
sapiens genome.
What must disappear is not the

concept of race, which is perfectly
clear and harmless in normal times,
but the concept associated with it,
which hides undesirable moral values
that have nothing to do with science,
the concept of 'purity'. We must also
get rid of many other related pseudo-
concepts of biology, such as
"altruism" or "selfishness", which are
attributed as qualifiers to genes that
certainly have no moral conscience!
No gene, of course, is selfish, no
gene is pure. Each gene can be
associated with a function - or rather
a contribution to the implementation
of a function - the role of which will
strongly depend on the context in
which it is implemented. Having black
skin when the sun is dominant will
help carriers to have viable offspring
in these conditions. On the contrary, it
will be a handicap at high latitudes
because it triggers a vitamin D
deficiency, resulting in a lack of
proper ossification, leading to rickets.
25 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00
A smooth skin protects against many

parasites, but makes one more
sensitive to cold, etc. Human genetic
polymorphism is what has allowed
humans to invade the planet.
Notes
1. F. Vicq d'Azyr (1792) Grande

Encyclopédie Médecine, vol 4
2. F. Vicq d'Azyr (1792) Grande
An to in e Da n ch in © You are here: Home > Vision > Human diversity > Nature and
2000-2023 Encyclopédie Système anatomique,
artifice
vol 2
3. Luo et al., (2018) Autoimmunity
and molecular mimicry to flu in type 1
narcolepsy Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A.
115: E12323-E12332
4. Bourneuf et al., (2017) Rapid
discovery of de novo deleterious
mutations in cattle enhances the
value of livestock as a model
species, Scientific Reports 7: 11466.
5. I. Kant (1785) Grundlegung zur
Metaphysik der Sitten
26 of 26 30/09/2023 17:00

In Praise of Diversity The Orchestra of Genetics

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

In Praise of Diversity The Orchestra of Genetics

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

In praise of diversity: the orcherstra of genetics file:///Users/adanchin/Documents/Fichiers_actifs/Pages_HTML/WW...

SC I EN C E PHI LO SO PHY I N D U STRY TEA C H I N G PO PULARI SATI O N CONTACT

This page is an adaptation of an

Praise oldsters picking up environment. To this end, it was first

For this purpose, it was necessary for

It was soon realised that the

signed in the Great Encyclopaedia

Once the natural classes have been

Shortly before Vicq d'Azyr's

possible to define what we now

Alongside the scientific description as

domesticated throughout human

Unlike many animals (but certainly

animal can live. However, it is often

recognised by the pathogens, but this

The question of transplants of course

To make things clearer, an example,

have exposed a marker of the viral

documented example of a genetic

Phenotype and genotype: most

So far, we have analysed only one

operates the classification. Because

This animal is familiar to all of us.

competitions), coat colour, horn

Genetics has made it possible to go

phenotypic characteristics that define

In this context, it must be understood

constraints (acquired), whereas the

To go further, let us take a metaphor

orchestra is not the only one to be

score is badly printed, the

Here is a concrete illustration of this

several generations (provided that

Classification and evolutionary

We have seen the value of

in Africa, to the appearance of Homo

The formation of natural classes

time). A first dichotomy distinguishes

Race and ideology

If it is true that the great stages of

and even probable and fertile, within

As a result, particular phenotypic

of a large part of the Neanderthal

What must disappear is not the

A smooth skin protects against many

1. F. Vicq d'Azyr (1792) Grande

You might also like