The watchmaker is blind but he is not stupid. Comment on 'How life changes itself: The read-write (RW) genome' by James Shapiro.

摘要

In his article, Shapiro presents a detailed argument that applies core concepts from artificial intelligence to long-term biological genome restructuring [1]. In fact, his insights are as interesting for computer scientists, especially those working in evolutionary computation, as they are for biologists. A convincing case is made that genomes encode methods for active, structured and controlled natural genetic engineering (NGE) in a manner that is sensitive and reactive to specific environmental challenges. After discussing gene regulation within the lifetime of a cell, and epigenetic modifications that occur during development, Shapiro goes on to describe other sensitive and controlled ‘writing’ mechanisms that operate over evolutionary timescales to generate genetic variation.