You've Been Lied To About Genetics

Should we give (Mendel's) peas a chance? Nah, we've moved on.

SOURCES + FURTHER READING:

CORRECTIONS:

9:56 - Weldon didn’t exactly try to replicate Mendel’s results - he didn’t do any crosses. His plates were moreso a proof of concept to show that the pea colour trait was more variable than Mendel was letting on. It certainly wasn’t a binary.

13:50 - It was Mendel's 200th birthday LAST year actually, but this video took so long to make that I never picked up that mistake in the script as the new year ticked over. Oh well, happy belated 200th birthday Mendel.

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Thank you to Gautam Shine for supporting this video!

#Mendel200 #genetics #biology

[azrieloni]

I'm a molecular biologist currently teaching in a university. This semester I was given genetics units to teach and most of the content and topics discussed within the course don't make sense to me as a molecular biologist. I wasn't really able to put my finger around it, but I already knew about polygenics, non-Mendelian genetics, epigenetics, and such. However, the way the course I'm currently teaching was designed is highly focused on Mendelian genetics which doesn't fully make sense to me.

Thank you for giving me the answer "why".

[chengong]

I’d say Mendels is not wrong, in fact he’s super correct on how single genes get inherited. It’s just that there are so many genes and none of them get to exclusively define any describable trait, such that knowing how single genes work don’t really help you understand how describable traits get inherited.

[StickySyrupEverywhere]

I stumbled upon this. I remember discussing many of these very things in biology and related courses back in the eighties. Many of us, including older professors, sensed that early genetic theory was oversimplified. Very good presentation.

[MichaelEllisYT]

A better way to think about genetic is that, rather than blueprints, they are a recipe. A lot of factors can go into making an apple pie turn out in a particular way, and it's not just the recipe ad ingredients list.

[AJCEJ]

Ah... to grow 1000s of pea plants in a monastery during the 1800s😌

[jsfbr]

Wow! This one of the most important videos I've watched on YouTube to this day! It took me 65 years if life and approximately half a century since hifh school to learn this most precious lesson. Thank you very very much!

[bigjdk]

DNA is like the body’s firmware. There are functions to do all sorts of things, but whether they’re run depends on a lot of factors. There’s also bugs and malware too. It’s fascinating!

[JKa]

I think it's helpful to point out that many diseases, especially autosomal recessive ones, are in fact on or off by a single gene - while others, and most of our appearance, are far more complicated in origin

[booyakasha]

"It doesn't guarantee anything" but it is probabilistically related in such a way that you can be confident of the outcome in most instances. Appealing to genetic relativism because of fringe cases isn't useful.

[hand.]

i honestly love how in biology every rule is essentially just "yes, but". makes it so interesting.

[bazoo]

FWIW, when I was taught about Mendel's experiments (more than half a century ago in Croatia, then a part of Yugoslavia), we were warned that there are very few traits that are determined by a single gene, with exactly one dominant and one recessive allele. For elementary school, I think that this suffices.

[iluan_]

As a biologist, I was taught mendelian genetics in college way back then. It has been a lot of work (but work that I love) keeping up with modern genetics and relearning these concepts. I'm thrilled by the idea that young students will be presented with a more realistic vision of genetics that takes into account the progress that has been done since back then. I do believe that upgrading one's knowledge will always be a task on every scientists "to do" list, but I also don't see any reason basic education should be stuck with the same lessons that is missing so much.

[kkiller]

I got a biotechnology degree 8 years ago. While I knew a bit about the subtleties and nuances of gene expression due to a course I took on developmental biology (senior year), this is the first time I've heard of the marble run model. The genetics courses I took with lab components were focused on Mendelian genetics as a general model, e.g. with breeding Drosophila melanogaster or splicing genes into bacterial plasmids, with any divergences from the Mendelian model noted as something like "yeah, this happens; the Mendelian model is incomplete, and we don't have a replacement yet".

[spliter]

I've been watching biology videos and documentaries for decades now and this is the first time I've seen someone actually mention the waddington analogy. (or in your other video, mentioned about proteins not just having one function).
This is all great stuff, and I hope to see more videos from you!

[ssm]

I was in a human genetics program in the early 80s. At that time the technology for the human genome project was just passed the imaginary state, but still a long way from reality. One of my professors scoffed at the idea that the human genome project would take a long time to complete, and that it would not be very helpful once it was done, his position was that there were not as many genes as the people proposing the project suggested. That turned out to be true and why the project finished much earlier than anticipated. He also said that the genes, although essential, is only the first layer of complexity. The real wild west of genetics was in the control and replication of those genes for which we have almost no understanding.

[HungNguyen]

Can't believe this gem has so little exposure. I hope your channel explode one day!

[simonrudduck]

“Lied to” is a click bait title. No conspiracy to it. This is just an *evolving* scientific theory.

[brunoaraujo]

I've just come across your channel yesterday and was left absolutely astonished! The way you can translate scientific concepts and ideas into simpler metaphors without losing their original complexity and realistic implications is truly something to admire. Specially considering the obvious effort you take into researching the literature and maintaining a very evidence based approach. Congratulations from Brazil! We would greatly benefit from science communicators like you around here.

[dsmtunerg]

Mendel wasn't wrong, his observations just dont apply to all of genetics. If you get past the first week of genetics 101, they clarify the proper application of Mendelian genetics

[justhadtosay]

Really enjoyed this, appreciate the energy in the presenter, easy to follow and enjoyable can tell the man loves learning and sharing it! Thanks