page_title: Genome (book)
section_title: Structure
hierarchical_section_title: Genome (book) / Structure
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: SRY protein navázaný na DNA English: Image of the protein SRY bound to DNA
context_page_description: Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters is a 1999 popular science book by the science writer Matt Ridley, published by Fourth Estate. The chapters are numbered for the pairs of human chromosomes, one pair being the X and Y sex chromosomes, so the numbering goes up to 22 with Chapter X and Y couched between Chapters 7 and 8.
  The book was welcomed by critics in journals such as Nature and newspapers including The New York Times. The London Review of Books however found the book "at once instructive and infuriating".
context_section_description: The book devotes one chapter to each pair of human chromosomes.  Since one (unnumbered) chapter is required to discuss the sex chromosomes, the final chapter is number 22.  Ridley was inspired to adopt this model by Primo Levi's book The Periodic Table.
  Chapter 1, Life
  The first chapter begins with a quote from Alexander Pope on the cycle of life.  The very broad topic "Life" is also the topic of the chapter.  Ridley discusses the history of the gene briefly, including our "last universal common ancestor".
  Chapter 2, Species
  Ridley discusses the history of human kind as a genetically distinct species.  He compares the human genome to chimpanzees, and ancestral primates.  He also points out that until the 19th Century, most scholars believed that there were 24 sets of genes, not 23 as known today.
  Chapter 3, History
  This chapter discusses the interplay between early geneticists, including Gregor Mendel, Charles Darwin, Hermann Joseph Muller and Francis Crick.
  Chapter 4, Fate
  Huntington's Corea is used to discuss the use of a particular sequence on Chromosome Four to cause traumatic health consequences.  The search for the chromosomal source of this and other related diseases is discussed through the work of Nancy Wexler, someone who may have inherited the gene but who turns to scientific work to study it in others.
  Chapter 5, Environment
  The concepts of pleiotropy and genetic pluralism are introduced.  A brief history of the study of asthma is used as the case study.  Asthma is related to as many as fifteen different genes, many on chromosome five.  Specifically, this includes a change from adenosine (A) to guanine (G) at position 46 on the ADRB2 gene.  The ADRB2 gene is related to the control of bronchodilation and bronchoconstriction.
  Chapter 6, Intelligence
  Robert Plomin's announcement in 1997 of the discovery of "a gene for intelligence" on chromosome 6 is the foundation for this chapter's lengthier discussion of the genetic basis for intelligence.  This included gene IGF₂R on the long arm of chromosome 6, which may also be related to liver cancer.  Ridley continues his premise in this chapter that the use of simple genetic markers is inadequate to describe the complete function of the genome, or the causation of disease.
  Chapter 7, Instinct
  This chapter discusses whether the form and existence of language has a genetic component. In particular, "specific language impairment" is possibly related to a gene on chromosome 7.  Ridley discusses the scientific disagreement between Canadian linguist Myrna Gopnik and others on whether this disorder relates to difficulties with grammar formulation, or is a broader intellectual disorder.
  Chapter X and Y, Conflict
  Ridley contemplates evolutionary psychology using the genes SRY on the Y chromosome, and DAX1 and Xq28 on the X chromosome.  The theory of genetic conflict and evolution is debated using the rhetorical question, are we bodies containing genes, or genes in bodies?
  Chapter 8, Self-Interest
  Richard Dawkins's concept of the "selfish gene" is described by Ridley through a discussion of retrotransposons.  This includes the behavior of the LINE-1 and Alu transposons.  Further, Ridley discusses the possible purposes of cytosine methylation in development. The chapter also discusses how, through reverse transcriptase, retroviruses like HIV copy themselves to the human genome.
  Chapter 9, Disease
  For chromosome 9, the book examines the discussion of the blood-typing genetic sequences.  Namely, the ABO blood groups and their impact on evolution are discussed.  Other genes mentioned include CFTR for cystic fibrosis.  Ridley concludes that the Human Genome Project is largely based on the inaccurate belief that there is one single human genome.  Proof that this is wrong comes from answering the question, which of the several choices of blood typing genetic sequence is selected, since each one has different disease-resistant and evolutionary consequences?
  Chapter 10, Stress
  The impact of stress on the human body is described starting with the creation of hormones by the CYP17 gene on 
caption: The SRY protein, bound to the double helix of DNA
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