DNAprint Genomics (DNAG)

[frogdreaming]

Sciguy, I'm sorry but you seem intent on trying to hide behind words when we are trying to discuss concepts.

I try to discuss, "the relationship between gene variants and traits", you argue the difference between "inheritance and disease" as though those topics are not direct subsets of "variants and traits".

Eric Lander is often credited with this analogy. Completing the human genome project is similar to having the "parts list" to a complex machine (a Boeing 747). But the "parts list" will not tell you how it works, or worse, how to repair it. But a logical first step to ever understanding disease is to, at least, know the parts that may be involved.

It is a fair analogy but it is flawed. Evidence suggests that we do NOT have the parts list but only a very small fraction of it. The reason that we can't seem to find the causal elements that result in specific traits is that we are limiting our review to the 'parts' that we have on our list. Unfortunately there are ten times as many parts as previously thought. It is like trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle and figuring out what the picture is, when you only have ten percent of the pieces.

Here is the reference I left out of the previous post. (Sorry)

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/health/061122/x11229A.html

regards,
frog