A 'bias' gene? Reply

摘要

I think that Dr Heinemann's points are good ones. I do not think that there is any panacea to the problems of ambiguity and confusion entailed in the naming of genes nor did I intend to imply that I thought there were. My three suggestions were simply intended as partial and provisional solutions, no more than that. I suspect that Dr Heinemann would agree that there aren't any easy solutions to this problem. In effect, gene names, whether based on mutant phenotypes or biochemical properties of (some) of their family members, are a form of annotation based on incomplete data, and that incompleteness guarantees trouble.