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Epigenetics: A Challenge for Genetics, Evolution, and Development?
Author(s) -
VIJVER GERTRUDIS,
SPEYBROECK LINDA,
WAELE DANI
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2002.tb04909.x
Subject(s) - epigenetics , abandonment (legal) , epigenesis , interpretation (philosophy) , biology , evolutionary biology , genetics , gene , dna methylation , political science , computer science , gene expression , law , programming language
A bstract : In this paper, it is argued that differences in how one relates the genome to its surrounding contexts leads to diverse interpretations of the term epigenetics . Three different approaches are considered, ranging from gene‐centrism, over gene‐regulation, to dynamic systems approaches. Although epigenetics receives its widest interpretation in a systems approach, a paradigmatic shift has taken place in biology from the abandonment of a gene‐centric position on to the present. The epistemological and ontological consequences of this shift are made explicit.