Coding capacities of genomes

Abstract

Now that we have an overview of the major features of eukaryote development we can ask four key questions about the molecular control of the processes involved. All of these relate to matters of genome organization and the way in which the components of the genome interact in a functional sense:

• Q.l Does all the DNA in a genome play a role in development. If not, how much of the genome has a coding function?

• Q.2 How is gene activity regulated in eukaryotes?

• Q.3 Does the large-scale arrangement of genes in chromosomes have any functional significance?

• Q.4 How important is the amount of gene product for the canalization of the phenotype?

‘It is the uncompromisingness with which dogma is held and not in the dogma itself that the danger lies.’ Samuel Butler