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The parts list of life

Nature Biotechnology volume 19, pages 401–402 (2001)Cite this article

The genome has turned out to be a relatively poor source of explanation for the differences between cells or between people. This was foreseen by certain prescient commentators1, who suggested that the genome is far from the answer to all biological questions, powerful as the associated tools of genomics may be2. Genomics and its daughters (proteomics, metabolomics, and “otheromics”) will continue to provide tools for the analysis of cells, tissues, and valuable insights into biological processes and phenomena. However, they will largely be confined to explaining what genes are, and have limited use in addressing the majority of human needs. The genome sequence provides some additional clues as to why genomics is not the final answer.

As they arise, systems at one explanatory level that are successful are selected by evolution, and become increasingly part of the common structure of life. Subsequent evolution uses these systems as base units, be they nucleotides or body segments, building a more complex, “higher” level out of those units. For this to be coherent and heritable, the new level must be built of components that are themselves well defined and consistent. Each major evolutionary advance therefore locks the details of the previous stage into a “parts list” from which more complex organization is constructed. As with any design, the parts list must be “frozen” before design of the next level can take place; thus (for example), the ubiquity of certain components of the basic chip sets of today's computers, the standardization of the shape and sizes of house bricks, the universal acceptance of the right-handed thread on bolts, and so on.

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Figure 1: Tentative classification of explanatory levels, interactions that characterize them, and a human view of which of these categories are important in distinguishing humans from other groups of organisms.

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  1. chief scientific officer at Amedis Pharmaceuticals, Royston, UK

    William Bains

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Bains, W. The parts list of life. Nat Biotechnol 19, 401–402 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/88044

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