DNA, Data and Ethics

The biophysical differences between different kinds of DNA data banks are described. The different ethical implications of DNA fingerprint data banks, data banks of known gene sequences, and data banks of total genomic sequences are considered. Ethical approaches using the concept of the common good and those based on human rights are evaluated in the context of DNA data. Additional theological considerations are discussed. In conclusion, a 'one size fits all' approach to bioethics in this area is rejected

The expression and assessment of emotions and internal states in individuals with severe or profound intellectual disabilities

The expression of emotions and internal states by individuals with severe or profound intellectual disabilities is a comparatively under-researched area. Comprehensive or standardised methods of assessing or understanding the emotions and internal states within this population, whose ability to communicate is significantly compromised, do not exist. The literature base will be discussed and compared to that within the general population. Methods of assessing broader internal states, notably depression, anxiety, and pain within severe or profound intellectual disabilities are also addressed. Finally, this review will examine methods of assessing internal states within genetic syndromes, including hunger, social anxiety and happiness within Prader-Willi, Fragile-X and Angelman syndrome. This will then allow for the identification of robust methodologies used in assessing the expression of these internal states, some of which may be useful when considering how to assess emotions within individuals with intellectual disabilities

Computing vs. Genetics

This chapter first presents the interrelations between computing and genetics, which both are based on information and, particularly, self-reproducing artificial systems. It goes on to examine genetic code from a computational viewpoint. This raises a number of important questions about genetic code. These questions are stated in the form of an as yet unpublished working hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests that many genetic alterations are caused by the last base of certain codons. If this conclusive hypothesis were to be confirmed through experiementation if would be a significant advance for treating many genetic diseases

Genome Structural-Functional Peculiarities Affecting Plant Epigenetic Variability and Evolution

There is an attempt to explain some evolutionary processes in plants such as saltatory changes on the base of multidimensionality of plant inherited information coding. According to the suggested hypothesis, inherited information is coded by not only a nucleotide sequence but also by chromosome differential endoreduplication. It is supposed that chromosomes compete among each other for the contact with the nuclear membrane, but a change in the endoreduplication degree of various chromosome sites can result in a change of a competition ability for the contact with a nuclear membrane. A simultaneous increase of chromosome endoreduplication degree of many sites can lead to an increase of nuclear membrane surface and to a change in chromosome competitive interrelations and, respectively, to a change of activity of many genes. Phenotypicaly it may manifest itself as a saltatory change of many traits

Maternal Expression Relaxes Constraint on Innovation of the Anterior Determinant, bicoid

The origin of evolutionary novelty is believed to involve both positive selection and relaxed developmental constraint. In flies, the redesign of anterior patterning during embryogenesis is a major developmental innovation and the rapidly evolving Hox gene, bicoid (bcd), plays a critical role. We report evidence for relaxation of selective constraint acting on bicoid as a result of its maternal pattern of gene expression. Evolutionary theory predicts 2-fold greater sequence diversity for maternal effect genes than for zygotically expressed genes, because natural selection is only half as effective acting on autosomal genes expressed in one sex as it is on genes expressed in both sexes. We sample an individual from ten populations of Drosophila melanogaster and nine populations of D. simulans for polymorphism in the tandem gene duplicates bcd, which is maternally expressed, and zerknüllt (zen), which is zygotically expressed. In both species, we find the ratio of bcd to zen nucleotide diversity to be two or more in the coding regions but one in the noncoding regions, providing the first quantitative support for the theoretical prediction of relaxed selective constraint on maternal-effect genes resulting from sex-limited expression. Our results suggest that the accelerated rate of evolution observed for bcd is owing, at least partly, to variation generated by relaxed selective constraint

Artificial and Natural Genetic Information Processing

Conventional methods of genetic engineering and more recent genome editing techniques focus on identifying genetic target sequences for manipulation. This is a result of historical concept of the gene which was also the main assumption of the ENCODE project designed to identify all functional elements in the human genome sequence. However, the theoretical core concept changed dramatically. The old concept of genetic sequences which can be assembled and manipulated like molecular bricks has problems in explaining the natural genome-editing competences of viruses and RNA consortia that are able to insert or delete, combine and recombine genetic sequences more precisely than random-like into cellular host organisms according to adaptational needs or even generate sequences de novo. Increasing knowledge about natural genome editing questions the traditional narrative of mutations (error replications) as essential for generating genetic diversity and genetic content arrangements in biological systems. This may have far-reaching consequences for our understanding of artificial genome editing