A few decades ago when the human genome was first being sequenced, it was assumed that most genes would have a straightforward 1:1 relationship with specific associated traits (so you’d find a “gene for X” and a “gene for Y”). And while there are a few genes like that (ones that depend on changes to proteins rather than their expression), it turns out that most genes are part of complex gene regulatory networks that resemble neural networks in that there are complex non-linear relationships between the inputs and outputs. So if you want to make a specific change to a specific trait, you have to edit multiple genes, and each of those genes affects multiple other traits you weren’t intending to change, etc.
Yeah this is actually one of the main things fueling this massive anti transgender wave we’re seeing now across the world. People were taught there’s xx and xy and that’s it. That’s what makes you one sex or another when that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Turns out nothing in nature is black and white. Literally nothing.
A few decades ago when the human genome was first being sequenced, it was assumed that most genes would have a straightforward 1:1 relationship with specific associated traits (so you’d find a “gene for X” and a “gene for Y”). And while there are a few genes like that (ones that depend on changes to proteins rather than their expression), it turns out that most genes are part of complex gene regulatory networks that resemble neural networks in that there are complex non-linear relationships between the inputs and outputs. So if you want to make a specific change to a specific trait, you have to edit multiple genes, and each of those genes affects multiple other traits you weren’t intending to change, etc.
Yeah this is actually one of the main things fueling this massive anti transgender wave we’re seeing now across the world. People were taught there’s xx and xy and that’s it. That’s what makes you one sex or another when that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Turns out nothing in nature is black and white. Literally nothing.