SCT: How Cells Play the Genetic Instrument

The genome is like a finely
tuned piano. But what plays it?
Read about the pianist here.

Reprinted from Science & Culture Today.

Epigenetics: Performing the Genome
by David Coppedge
Science & Culture Today, November 13, 2023

Epigenetics has been rising in esteem contemporaneously with the decline of the Central Dogma of genetics (that DNA is the master control in the cell). Just as the pianist gets the applause and not the piano, the epigenome is now being considered the artist behind the instrument. It’s not that the genome has lost any of its aura, but it cannot do anything without a performer.

Frank Gannon wrote a most interesting essay in the journal EMBO Reports, titled, “The piano and the pianist.” Gannon, an Australian who was the former director of a medical research institute in Brisbane, was not writing about the performing arts. He wanted to introduce a new analogy to overcome “the ubiquitous ‘DNA is the blueprint of life’ interpretation of biology,” repeated by some who downplay the elements in the cell that give an organism its dynamic responsiveness to the environment.

The image of inevitability and of a rigorous design plan, and the notion of the dominating importance of DNA are misleading messages, however, that do not represent reality.

I suggest that the piano and the pianist is a better analogy as to how our lives and our health unfold. [Emphasis added.]

Gannon denies that our health is genetically determined: i.e., if we have a certain genetic defect, we will get the disease. That is not entirely true, he says as he details the analogy.

The function of each piano is defined by its 88 keys, but different pianos have different tones and timbres. Some pianos have defects that distort some notes. These could be at the little-used periphery of the keyboard or they could be more central. If the middle C was out of tune, it could be very jarring for the listener in a solo lyrical piece but it may be more subtle if it is part of complex chords. More importantly, though, it is the way the pianist plays the piano that will define the outcome as a pleasure or as discordant. Each pianist selects the tempo and the mood and may even compensate for a dud note.

How Does the Analogy Relate to Biology?

Writes Gannon, “If the keyboard is the genetic code, the piano is the epigenetic context that interprets the blueprint of life and varies the outcome.” He discusses specific ways cells “perform” the genome….

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