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...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , |
---|---|
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 |