iwfal,
The whole premise that sequencing the genome would be the key to understanding medicine or greatly improving heath care is absolute non-sense. I said it when the idea of genomic sequencing first came out, and it is non-sense now. You seem to be trying to diminish the importance of DNA when it comes to heredity with the comments about single mutation and their penetrance or lack thereof in diseases. There are layers of regulation to control pathways. Even when a mutation disturbs a pathway, positive and negative regulatory networks serve to buffer the system to help ensure a function that approximates desired output. They include alter RNA processing, RNA stability, translational regulation, post-translational modifications and so on. These are also encoded by primary DNA sequences, and the combinatorial effects are too astronomical to predict based on primary genomic sequences. There are trends that can be assessed for a number of allelic variants, but specific and reliable predictions from single gene mutations are rare. If it weren't for such redundancy and regulatory controls, none of us would be born.
Yes epigentics provides another regulatory mechanism to generate more plasticity without requiring primary DNA sequence changes. Yes there can be environmental inputs that alter pathways. Yes the are some unusual other regulatory controls, but I find in disturbing that you and that author keep diminishing "traditional" genetics in an attempt to appear profound.
AI
