As a gene-centric view of evolution, the modern synthesis has got causality in biology wrong
Excerpt: "In discussing cell division, he points out that the genome is entirely passive. It is the cell that does the dividing. DNA is as much acted upon as acting. If so, the conventional framework of biological theory is misleading. “What is still a mystery,” Davies writes,
is the biological equivalent of the supervisory unit that determines when instructions need to switch to become passive data. There is no obvious component in a cell, no special organelle that serves as “the strategic planner” to tell the cell how to regard DNA (as software or hardware) moment by moment. The decision to replicate … is not localized in one place."
https://denisnoble.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/The-Dance-Sourcebook-1.pdf
Excerpts: "DNA is a completely passive molecule until it is activated by the organism to enable RNAs to be produced that in turn form templates for the production of proteins. DNA cannot even be transmitted faithfully until massively corrected by the organism. It is not therefore the ‘immortal replicator’. "
" One of the consequences of the relativistic view is that genes, defined as DNA sequences, cease to be represented as active causes. They are templates and are passive causes, used when needed to make more proteins or RNAs."
https://nautil.us/its-the-end-of-the-gene-as-we-know-it-7885/
Excerpt: "The modern synthesis has got causality in biology wrong … DNA on its own does absolutely nothing until activated by the rest of the system … DNA is not a cause in an active sense. I think it is better described as a passive data base which is used by the organism to enable it to make the proteins that it requires."
My comment: Denis Noble is one those clever scientists who has understood the causality in biology; DNA is better described as a passive data base. It has no control over cellular mechanisms. DNA doesn't control life. DNA is not your destiny. DNA doesn't encode proteins, RNA does. DNA doesn't dictate phenotypes. I realized these facts after reading a few interesting articles about epigenetics, like this one:
https://www.genengnews.com/topics/omics/removing-epigenetic-post-it-notes-returns-stem-cells-to-unprimed-state/
Excerpt: "A drug originally intended to treat leukemia has an unexpected power. It can reverse stem cell development, converting primed pluripotent stem cells to naïve pluripotent stem cells. The drug, called MM-401, effectively removes epigenetic markers from histones, depriving the cell’s DNA-reading machinery of indications of where to start reading. Stripped of its accumulated “Post-it notes,” the DNA instruction manual is like new. It lacks any indications that any sections should receive any special attention."
https://www.genengnews.com/topics/omics/removing-epigenetic-post-it-notes-returns-stem-cells-to-unprimed-state/
Excerpt: "A drug originally intended to treat leukemia has an unexpected power. It can reverse stem cell development, converting primed pluripotent stem cells to naïve pluripotent stem cells. The drug, called MM-401, effectively removes epigenetic markers from histones, depriving the cell’s DNA-reading machinery of indications of where to start reading. Stripped of its accumulated “Post-it notes,” the DNA instruction manual is like new. It lacks any indications that any sections should receive any special attention."
