The Historical Context Of Genetic Information And Its Semantic Analysis

Heredity is the province of philosophers before the invention of microscope.In the process of exploring and studying the natural phenomena of genetic variation in biological traits,the genetic discipline gradually formed,trying to reveal the laws of genetic variation in the life world and expound the objective phenomenon theoretically.Various hypotheses and speculations have been put forward about the nature of genetic variation,such as pangenesis,germplasm,gemmule,hereditary determinant.In 1909,the concept of "gene" was formally put forward,and the development of scientific theory and technology made the concept of "gene" richer and richer.With the development of biology,the concept of information enters into molecular biology as a part of the hypothesis of biological specificity.The concept of information helps biologists to explain complex biological phenomena,so biological philosophers began to pay attention to this concept of "information" and discuss its utility in explaining complex problems.In different contexts,the concept of genetic information has different semantic meanings.HEREDITARY PROBLEMS are often discussed in information terms,the combinatorial structure of language and DNA provides a strong basis for analogical reasoning.From 1950 s to 1970 s,information was a to study gene function.With the development of sequencing technology,in the1980 s information became the goal of projects which taking producing DNA sequences as a result.The new technology of "genetic information" embedded in DNA sequencing has brought great prospect and potential to biomedical researches.The concept of genetic information is mainly applied in the following aspects:(1)The genetic information can give a description of the whole organism's phenotypic traits(including complex behavioral traits)by specifing or encoding the information contained in the genes;(2)In terms of the execution of programs stored in genes,the genetic information can explain the processes of many causal processes in cells and even the entire sequence of organism development;(3)The transmission of genes(and other genetic structures)is regarded as the flow of information from parents to children;(4)From an evolutionary point of view,genes in some sense should be thought of as "made up" of information.Information becomes an essential part of the living world.(5)Genetic information can describe population dynamics which is regarded as the result of natural selection in a ideal way.The study of biomolecular sequence and phenotypic traits originated from different scientific traditions.DNA sequences,as "genetic information",become a shortcut for inferring phenotypic effects,which would cause a risk of rekindling genetic determinism.