4. DNA does not exist. The invention of genes
By Robbin Koefoed Jakobsen
In the year of 1883 Wilhelm Roux (1850-1924) speculates in his hypothetical discussion paper (hypothetical discussion included in the main title), before the term chromosome was coined, what he thought could be the meaning of, what in professional language is named nuclear division.
Nuclear division happen according to the official narrative when a nucleus multiply and hereby also chromosomes, are copied into two new identical nucleus.
“For Roux the function of the extraordinary multiplicity of nuclear qualities consisted in their importance for physiological, behavioral, and developmental processes. Explicitly the word "heredity" itself cannot be found …” in his 1883 work “… but its essence is implied.” - Professor of genetics Curt Stern, University of California
Wilhelm Roux "... was willing to ask questions about the purpose of a biological phenomenon which were complementary to questions about its causal antecedents." - Professor of genetics Curt Stern, University of California
The word antecedent is according to Cambridge dictionary “someone or something existing or happening before, especially as the cause or origin of something existing or happening later ...”
"The question of the meaning of a biological process can be asked in two ways. Firstly in relation to its function for the biological structure in which it occurs; Secondly, the causal meaning, the causes to which it owes its origin and progression, can be the subject of our interest and our research.” - Wilhelm Roux
”It follows that for the development of the embryo ... the nucleus is more important than the cell body, a conclusion which is in complete agreement with the more recent results on the process of fertilization.” - Wilhelm Roux
“At the same time that Roux recognized the chromosomes as the bearers of the submicroscopic units which are transmitted from cell to cell and which control the fundamental life processes of the organism, August Weismann [1834-1914] came to a similar conclusion and explicitly attributed to the chromosomes the role of bearers of hereditary units.” - Professor of genetics Curt Stern, University of California
The chromosome theory of inheritance
Short after Gregor Mendel's 1865-work Experiments on Plant Hybridization was rediscovered in 1900, Walter Sutton (1877-1916) proposes the chromosome theory of inheritance.
Walter Sutton used mathematical calculations by Gregor Mendel as foundation of the theory.
"I may finally call attention to the probability that the association of paternal and maternal chromosomes in pairs and their subsequent separation during the reducing division as indicated above may constitute the physical basis of the Mendelian law of heredity." quote by Walter Sutton (1902)
What is the chromosomal theory of inheritance?
“The chromosomal theory of inheritance is the idea that genes, the units of heredity, are physical in nature and are found in the chromosomes.” - encyclopedia.com
In a paper released in the year of 1910 professor Thomas Hunt Morgan established through experimentation with flies the chromosome theory of inheritance and hereby claim evidence that genes are real and placed on chromosomes.
“In this present [1910] paper, however Morgan is providing the first evidence that genes are real, physical objects, located on chromosomes, with properties that can be manipulated and studied experimentally." - Robert J. Robbins, Vice President for Information Technology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
In this 1910 paper Thomas Hunt Morgan explicit names the involvement of Gregor Mendel’s work.
"It will be seen from the last formula that the outcome is Mendelian …" - Professor Thomas Hunt Morgan
The chromosome theory of inheritance independently proposed by Walter Sutton (as well as Theodor Boveri) and extended by Thomas Hunt Morgan is also known by the name Mendelian-chromosome theory.
In 1915 Thomas Hunt Morgan, among others, wrote the book The Mechanism of Mendelian Heredity. Curt Stern describes the book as "the fundamental textbook of the new genetics"
According to PhD Professor Lilian Pereira, Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, historian Ernst Mayr agrees that “… the Mendelian chromosome theory was made consistent by the genetic data presented in …” the book.
Historian Ernst Mayr states that “… Morgan’s two closest associates, Sturtevant and Bridges, felt the need to substantiate the validity of chromosome theory by ever new experiments.”
Thomas Hunt Morgan was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1933 for his work allegedly confirming the chromosome theory of inheritance.
The invention of genes
”The word “gene” coined by Wilhelm Johannsen, was derived from de Vries's term “pangen,” itself a substitute for “gemmule” in Darwin's Pangenesis.” - Yongsheng Liu, Department of Biochemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
Hugo de Vries, the son of a Prime Minister, was the individual that took Charles Darwin’s concept of the existence of genes and repackaged it as ‘pangen’
Then the danish botanist Wilhelm Johannsen twenty years later, in 1909, coined the term gene from Hugo de Vries ‘pangen’.
”Most people know that the term “gene” was coined by Johannsen (1909), and linked with Mendelian inheritance. Less well known is that the term “gene” evolved from Darwin's “gemmule” via de Vries's “pangen.”” - Yongsheng Liu, Department of Biochemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
“Mendelian inheritance refers to certain patterns of how traits are passed from parents to offspring. These patterns were established by the Austrian monk Gregor Mendel ...” - Lucia Hindorff Ph.D, lead Extramural Training Program Director at the National Human Genome Research Institute.
Hugo de Vries used the concept of what today is being called genes (through Charles Darwin) by using the same laws as presented in Gregor Johann Mendel’s 1865 paper.
Charles Darwin’s gemmule
By using the argument of an assumption Charles Darwin advocated the existence of what later would be called genes.
An assumption according to Cambridge dictionary can be defined as “something that you accept as true without question or proof”
“It is universally admitted that the cells or units of the body increase by self-division or proliferation, retaining the same nature, and that they ultimately become converted into the various tissues and substances of the body. But besides this means of increase I assume that the units throw off minute granules which are dispersed throughout the whole system; that these, when supplied with proper nutriment, multiply by self-division, and are ultimately developed into units like those from which they were originally derived. These granules maybe called gemmules. They are collected from all parts of the system to constitute the sexual elements, and their development in the next generation forms a new being; but they are likewise capable of transmission in a dormant state to future generations and may then be developed.” quote by Charles Darwin
Hugo de Vries pangen
Professor of botany Charles Stuart Gager, who served as a translator of Hugo de Vries book ‘Intracellular Pangenesis’, clarifies in the preface of the book that the concept of what we today call genes can never be proven to exist:
“The hypothesis of intracellular pangenesis can never be absolutely demonstrated as true
— can never advance beyond the rank of a theory because the hypothetical pangens are conceived to be invisible, ultra-microscopic units, whose existence can never be more than inferred ...”
Hugo de Vries proclaims the following:
“To the smallest particles, of which each represents one hereditary characteristic, I shall give a new name and call them pangens ...” - Hugo de Vries
“The hypothetical particles Darwin called ''gemmules," on account of the analogy mentioned in the first proposition. This is a poorly chosen term, which has contributed much toward the raising of insurmountable objections to his theory.” - Hugo de Vries
“In the Introduction I have mentioned the reasons which induce me to reject the name “gemmule." It is, in everybody's mind, too closely connected with the transmission hypothesis. I may be allowed to christen the hypothetical bearers of the individual hereditary predispositions by a new name, and call them pangens.” - Hugo de Vries
Wilhelm Johannsen’s gene
“We will thus henceforth for “pangen” and “pangene” instead say “gene” and “genes”.” - quote from part of the english translation of ‘Elemente der exakten Erblichkeitslehre’ by Wilhelm Johannsen
“No satisfactory conception regarding the nature of the “gene” is currently established. This, however, has absolutely no influence on the virtues of heritability research; it suffices that it is certainly proved that such “genes” do exist. This proof, accomplished by Gregor Mendel ... is one of the most important achievements of precise research in experimental crossing.” - quote from part of the english translation of ‘Elemente der exakten Erblichkeitslehre’ by Wilhelm Johannsen