Cargando…

Uncertainty principle of genetic information in a living cell

BACKGROUND: Formal description of a cell's genetic information should provide the number of DNA molecules in that cell and their complete nucleotide sequences. We pose the formal problem: can the genome sequence forming the genotype of a given living cell be known with absolute certainty so tha...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Strippoli, Pierluigi, Canaider, Silvia, Noferini, Francesco, D'Addabbo, Pietro, Vitale, Lorenza, Facchin, Federica, Lenzi, Luca, Casadei, Raffaella, Carinci, Paolo, Zannotti, Maria, Frabetti, Flavia
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2005
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1262781/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16197549
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1742-4682-2-40
_version_ 1782125913756925952
author Strippoli, Pierluigi
Canaider, Silvia
Noferini, Francesco
D'Addabbo, Pietro
Vitale, Lorenza
Facchin, Federica
Lenzi, Luca
Casadei, Raffaella
Carinci, Paolo
Zannotti, Maria
Frabetti, Flavia
author_facet Strippoli, Pierluigi
Canaider, Silvia
Noferini, Francesco
D'Addabbo, Pietro
Vitale, Lorenza
Facchin, Federica
Lenzi, Luca
Casadei, Raffaella
Carinci, Paolo
Zannotti, Maria
Frabetti, Flavia
author_sort Strippoli, Pierluigi
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Formal description of a cell's genetic information should provide the number of DNA molecules in that cell and their complete nucleotide sequences. We pose the formal problem: can the genome sequence forming the genotype of a given living cell be known with absolute certainty so that the cell's behaviour (phenotype) can be correlated to that genetic information? To answer this question, we propose a series of thought experiments. RESULTS: We show that the genome sequence of any actual living cell cannot physically be known with absolute certainty, independently of the method used. There is an associated uncertainty, in terms of base pairs, equal to or greater than μs (where μ is the mutation rate of the cell type and s is the cell's genome size). CONCLUSION: This finding establishes an "uncertainty principle" in genetics for the first time, and its analogy with the Heisenberg uncertainty principle in physics is discussed. The genetic information that makes living cells work is thus better represented by a probabilistic model rather than as a completely defined object.
format Text
id pubmed-1262781
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2005
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-12627812005-10-23 Uncertainty principle of genetic information in a living cell Strippoli, Pierluigi Canaider, Silvia Noferini, Francesco D'Addabbo, Pietro Vitale, Lorenza Facchin, Federica Lenzi, Luca Casadei, Raffaella Carinci, Paolo Zannotti, Maria Frabetti, Flavia Theor Biol Med Model Commentary BACKGROUND: Formal description of a cell's genetic information should provide the number of DNA molecules in that cell and their complete nucleotide sequences. We pose the formal problem: can the genome sequence forming the genotype of a given living cell be known with absolute certainty so that the cell's behaviour (phenotype) can be correlated to that genetic information? To answer this question, we propose a series of thought experiments. RESULTS: We show that the genome sequence of any actual living cell cannot physically be known with absolute certainty, independently of the method used. There is an associated uncertainty, in terms of base pairs, equal to or greater than μs (where μ is the mutation rate of the cell type and s is the cell's genome size). CONCLUSION: This finding establishes an "uncertainty principle" in genetics for the first time, and its analogy with the Heisenberg uncertainty principle in physics is discussed. The genetic information that makes living cells work is thus better represented by a probabilistic model rather than as a completely defined object. BioMed Central 2005-09-30 /pmc/articles/PMC1262781/ /pubmed/16197549 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1742-4682-2-40 Text en Copyright © 2005 Strippoli et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Commentary
Strippoli, Pierluigi
Canaider, Silvia
Noferini, Francesco
D'Addabbo, Pietro
Vitale, Lorenza
Facchin, Federica
Lenzi, Luca
Casadei, Raffaella
Carinci, Paolo
Zannotti, Maria
Frabetti, Flavia
Uncertainty principle of genetic information in a living cell
title Uncertainty principle of genetic information in a living cell
title_full Uncertainty principle of genetic information in a living cell
title_fullStr Uncertainty principle of genetic information in a living cell
title_full_unstemmed Uncertainty principle of genetic information in a living cell
title_short Uncertainty principle of genetic information in a living cell
title_sort uncertainty principle of genetic information in a living cell
topic Commentary
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1262781/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16197549
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1742-4682-2-40
work_keys_str_mv AT strippolipierluigi uncertaintyprincipleofgeneticinformationinalivingcell
AT canaidersilvia uncertaintyprincipleofgeneticinformationinalivingcell
AT noferinifrancesco uncertaintyprincipleofgeneticinformationinalivingcell
AT daddabbopietro uncertaintyprincipleofgeneticinformationinalivingcell
AT vitalelorenza uncertaintyprincipleofgeneticinformationinalivingcell
AT facchinfederica uncertaintyprincipleofgeneticinformationinalivingcell
AT lenziluca uncertaintyprincipleofgeneticinformationinalivingcell
AT casadeiraffaella uncertaintyprincipleofgeneticinformationinalivingcell
AT carincipaolo uncertaintyprincipleofgeneticinformationinalivingcell
AT zannottimaria uncertaintyprincipleofgeneticinformationinalivingcell
AT frabettiflavia uncertaintyprincipleofgeneticinformationinalivingcell