Comments on: Book review – Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are

By: Book review – On the Origin of Evolution: Tracing ‘Darwin’s Dangerous Idea’ from Aristotle to DNA | The Inquisitive Biologist

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 07:46:50 +0000

[…] of how DNA codes for amino acids. It touches on horizontal gene transfer, epigenetics, and twin studies and the discovery of polygenic traits. All important topics for sure, but they omit so many others as to make this part of their history […]

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By: Book review – Science in Black and White: How Biology and Environment Shape Our Racial Divide | The Inquisitive Biologist

Wed, 09 Sep 2020 14:59:37 +0000

[…] influenced by thousands of genes with tiny contributions each (so-called polygenic traits – Robert Plomin makes a notable appearance […]

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By: Book review – Hacking the Code of Life: How Gene Editing Will Rewrite Our Futures | The Inquisitive Biologist

Thu, 09 May 2019 11:57:34 +0000

[…] to target are polygenic – influenced by many (many!) genes of small effect (see also my review of Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are). The other is the hope that we will be able to cure numerous diseases. To have her analytically […]

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By: Book review – The Drunken Monkey: Why We Drink and Abuse Alcohol | The Inquisitive Biologist

Mon, 11 Mar 2019 09:34:04 +0000

[…] Similarly, Dudley is critical of our clinical diagnosis of alcoholism. It has been notoriously flexible through time, and even today varies by practitioner, cultural group, and country. And importantly, he says, it does not depend on quantitative measures of alcohol intake, but on qualitative measures of impacts of excessive drinking. The search for a genetic explanation of why some people can hold their liquor where others become drunkards is also fraught with difficulty. Twin studies give heritability estimates between 20% to 60%, indicating a large environmental component. Searches for “the” gene for alcoholism (candidate gene approaches) have been replaced by the sobering insight that alcoholism is a complex trait depending on many genes of small effect, requiring so-called genome-wide association studies. (For much more on twin studies, the genetic underpinnings of our behaviour, and complex traits, see my review of Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are.) […]

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By: Book review – The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease and Inheritance | The Inquisitive Biologist

Sun, 13 Jan 2019 10:00:53 +0000

[…] recent book, Plomin surveyed the long-term twin studies he has been involved in (see my review of Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are). One of his (paraphrased) take-home messages was: “Look at how identical these twins are, […]

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By: Book review – Lamarck’s Revenge: How Epigenetics Is Revolutionizing Our Understanding of Evolution’s Past and Present | The Inquisitive Biologist

Tue, 08 Jan 2019 09:28:36 +0000

[…] complex and polygenic (influenced by numerous genes of small effect, see for example my review of Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are), which makes them little accessible to CRISPR editing. And again, since CRISPR allows direct […]

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By: Book review – Ancestors in Our Genome: The New Science of Human Evolution | The Inquisitive Biologist

Thu, 03 Jan 2019 14:26:01 +0000

[…] as also highlighted in my last review of Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are, many traits are not caused by one or a few genes of large effect, but are polygenic, i.e. […]

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By: Book review – Gene Machine: The Race to Decipher the Secrets of the Ribosome | The Inquisitive Biologist

Wed, 26 Dec 2018 21:47:42 +0000

[…] History, She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity, or Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are). I am convinced that Ramakrishnan could have written a fantastically readable overview, as he does […]

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