[Symbiosis as an adaptive process and source of phenotypic complexity, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 15 May 2007, 104 (suppl 1), 8627–8633, 10.1073/pnas.0611659104]
“The main purpose of most genes in the human genome is regulating the expression of other genes in the genome.”
Source: Genome (1999), Chapter 10 “Stress” (p. 150)
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Matt Ridley 65
economist 1958Related quotes

" Another philosopher proclaims a nonexistent “crisis” in evolutionary biology http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/another-philosopher-proclaims-a-nonexistent-crisis-in-evolutionary-biology/" September 7, 2012

“Patterns of gene expression are to organisms as melodies and harmonies are to sonatas.”
Source: The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998), p. 59
Context: Patterns of gene expression are to organisms as melodies and harmonies are to sonatas. It's all about which sets of proteins appear in a cell at the same time (the chords) and which sets come before or after other sets (the themes) and at what rate they appear (the tempos) and how they modulate one another (the developments and transitions). When these patterns go awry we may see malignancy. When they change by mutation we can get new kinds of organisms. When they work, we get a creature.

Interview in the documentary-film The Game Changers by Louie Psihoyos (2018).
"The Without and Within of Smart Mice", p. 234 (originally appeared in Time, 1999-09-13)
I Have Landed (2002)
as quoted by Nick Zagorski in: [Profile of Nancy A. Moran, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 22 November 2005, 102, 47, 16916–16918, 10.1073/pnas.0508498102, http://www.pnas.org/content/102/47/16916]