Challenges to the Modern Synthesis

Stephen Jay Gould, 1941-2002 Nils Eldredge, 1941-2002

DNA

Transcription

Translation

Notion of “gene expression”

Question: Why aren’t “identical twins” identical?

Epigenetics

From Wikipedia:

“Epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene expression or cellular phenotype caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence.”

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/epigenetics.html

Is epigenetics why cloned animals don’t fare well?

Genetic regulation

Genetic Switches (in “non-expressed” regions)

Genetic Regulatory Networks

Random Boolean Networksas models of genetic regulatory networks