Zhou’s Brevia.doc (to <Science>U.S.)

　

The Mendel’s mistake

　

Muying Zhou  The central hospital of Shandong Feicheng Coal-Mining Group 

 

Corporation, Feicheng, Shandong  271608, China            20 05.9.

 

I found a mistake in Mendel’s work.

 

What did Mendel say?  Mendel's hereditary theory was created in 1866 by G.

 

Mendel. According to the result ( the parents' character such as being green or

 

yellow appears and distributes in specific law again in the filial generation) of his test

 

of pea hybridization Mendel proposed the hypothesis as following: The character (e.g.

 

green or yellow & c.) can appear because the organism contains the factor

 

determining the character, and the factor distributes and spreads in specific laws, i.e.

 

the Mendel laws, and therefore was called the Mendel factor, i.e. the gene now. On

 

other word, Mendel’s hypothesis said: The hereditary material just is the gene, which

 

distributes and spreads in Mendel’s laws and determines the character. So it depends

 

on two points whether Mendel’s hypothesis is true: 1.Is there the gene which

 

distributes and spreads in Mendel’s laws in the organism? 2. Is the gene the origin of

 

the character, i.e. the factor determining the character? The first point had been

 

verified in the past century: In the organism there truly is the gene, which had been

 

affirmed to be a segment of DNA on which recorded the information of the character

 

(protein). But the second point had never been verified by the scientific circles.

 

What is the mistake?  Now let us to check it. Is the gene the origin of the

 

character? No, Say in detail: With the gene only it is insufficient to make the character

 

appear. The gene couldn’t make Mendel see any character (green or yellow) of pea,

couldn’t make the result of Mendel’s test of pea hybridization appear and, of course,

 

couldn’t make Mendel’s laws and genetics be born. This insufficient we said is what

 

of maker of the character instead of that of raw materials, environment and condition

 

etc. Just as with the Man only it is insufficient to make baby. This is also insufficient

 

what of maker(woman) of the baby instead of that of raw materials (food),

 

environment and condition etc (house, bed, bedding). The character, i.e. protein, is

 

polypeptide. And what provided from outside to the organism is amino acid, from

 

which to protein there the synthesizer is needed. Therefore the RNA is needed

 

because RNA is the synthesizer of protein[1-6]. Although on the gene there is the

 

information complementary with RNA, but it only is information, besides which to

 

make RNA there must be the transcriptase which builds 3’,5’- phosphodiester bond to

 

make mononucleotides into RNA. That is to say, to make Mendel see green or yellow

 

of pea the transcriptase is another necessary factor besides the gene. Only by the

 

cooperation of the gene with the transcriptase can the character appear. These are the

 

facts in molecular biology. In cellular biology and developmental biology the facts

 

also refute the second point of Mendel’s hypothesis. 1. Without the initial

 

transcriptase system (abbreviated to TS) all the cells in the world couldn’t be live

 

for their genomes can’t be transcripted. On other words, the cellular TS is a necessary

 

hereditary material. 2. To any organism the character of all its life is caused by neither

 

the genome nor TS but the first transcription completed by the both genome and TS in

 

the organism’s first cell (e.g.oosperm). That is to say, to all the cellular organisms the

 

character originates from cooperation of the genome with the TS. 3. The hereditary

 

material must be able to replicate, but the genome can’t. In all the cells the genome

 

gains its replication through the following course:    

 

genome×TS→RNA& protein (in whole cell cycle)→2(genome×TS)

 

In this course both the genome and TS gain their replication by cooperating with each

 

other. To complete own replication the genome relies on forming 3’,5’-

 

phosphodiester bond built by DNA replicase producing in the course above and the

 

TS needs own amino acid sequence information recorded on the genome. In a word,

 

Mendel’s theory is only partially right. The gene is truly a hereditary factor

 

conforming to Mendel's laws, but it only is one of factors determining the character.

 

In the organism there is another hereditary factor——TS (the initial transcriptase

 

system) being another one of factors determines the character. Only by relying on

 

cooperation with each other can the both factors bring life to the organism and make

 

the character appear.

 

Why did Mendel fall into the mistake?  On the surface what a character (green

 

or yellow) is determined by what a gene (green or yellow) in his test, which was the

 

reason why Mendel took the factor determining the character to be no other than the

 

gene. But below the surface the fact is not so simple. Mendel didn’t notice: he hadn’t

 

seen the fact that the gene made the character appear by itself; as the gene was inside

 

a black box——oosperm, Mendel couldn’t say there was no other factors determining

 

the character by cooperation with the gene. Only being one of factors determining the

 

character the gene would make the character appear on condition that there had been

 

all other factors needed for cooperation with it. Therefore the supposing had been

 

proposed by Mendel should be that the gene must at least be one of the factors

 

determining the character. This is in much the same way as the following case. There

 

was a house where would be born a white baby after a white man entered or a black

 

baby if a black man entered. On the surface what (white or black) a baby must be

 

determined by the existence of what (white or black) a man, but below the surface the

 

fact is not so simple. People hadn’t seen that the man made the baby by himself, as

 

the man entered a black box——the house, people couldn’t say there was no other

 

factor determining the baby by cooperation with the man. Only being one of factors

 

determining the baby the man would make the baby appear on condition that there

 

had been all other factors needed for cooperation with him. So the correct conclusion

 

is that the man must at least be one of the factors determining the baby.

 

References

[1]Noller, H.F., Hoffarth, V.& Zimniak, L. Unusual resistance of peptidyl transferase to protein extraction procedures. Science 256,1416~1419(1992).

[2]Piccirilli, J.A., McConnell, T.S., Zaug, A.J., Noller, H.F.& Cech, T.R. Aminoacyl esterase activity of the Tetrahymena ribozyme. Science 256,1420~1423(1992).

[3]Ban, N., Nissen, P., Hansen, J., Moore, P.B.& Steitz, T.A. The complete atomic structure of the large ribosomal subunit at 2.4Å resolution. Science 289,905~920(2000).

[4]Cech, T.R. The ribosome is a ribozyme. Science 289,878~879(2000).

[5]Moore, P.B.& Steits,T.A. The involvement of RNA in ribosome function. Nature 418,229~235(2002).

[6]Steits, T.A. & Moore, P.B. RNA, the first macromolecular catalyst: the ribosome is a ribozyme. Trends biochem. Sci. 28,411~418(2003).

 

 

 

 

 

Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to Muying Zhou  (e-mail: fckzmy@yahoo.com.cn )

 

 

[the original in Chinese 英汉对照]                     

 孟德尔的失误                2005.09.10.

周慕瀛（肥城矿业集团公司中心医院，山东肥城 271608）

 

孟德尔的失误

我发现孟德尔的结论有失误

孟德尔说了些什么？孟德尔遗传学是由孟德尔在1866年创立的。依据自己做的豌豆杂交试验的结果（亲代的性状，诸如绿色或黄色，按特定的规律在子代重新出现及分布）孟德尔作出推断或假定：黄色性状是由生物（豌豆）决定黄色性状的因子所造成的，而绿色性状是由决定绿色性状的因子所造成的；也就是说，性状是由生物的决定性状因子所造成的。为了解释植物杂交试验中性状遗传的结果，他进一步推论说，决定性状因子的分布及遗传遵循特定的规律，即孟德尔（两条）定律，按孟德尔定律分布并遗传的因子被称为孟德尔因子，也就是后来的基因。也就是说，基因就是决定性状的因子。所以孟德尔说的是：遗传物质就是基因，它按孟德尔定律分布并遗传，生物性状由它造成。可见孟德尔学说是否真实取决于两点：1.生物是否存在按孟德尔定律分布并遗传的基因；2.基因能决定性状吗，或者说性状是由基因造成的吗？关于第1点，上个世纪已经给予了证实；生物确实存在基因，并被确认为是一段记录有性状（蛋白质）信息的DNA。但是对于第2点，还没有人进行过核实。

失误是什么？ 现在就来核实这一点。（黄或绿等）性状由基因造成的吗？不是，说得详细些：要造成性状仅有基因是不够的。基因不可能使孟德尔看到豌豆的任何（黄或绿等）性状，不可能让孟德尔豌豆杂交试验的结果出现，当然也就不可能产生孟德尔定律及孟德尔遗传学。我们说的不够决不是原料、环境、条件的不够，而是性状的制造者不够。这正如要生孩子只有男子是不够的一样。这里的不够也不是原料（食物）、环境及条件（房子、床、被褥）等的不够而是孩子制造者（女子）的不够。性状即蛋白质是多肽，外界提供给生物的是氨基酸，从氨基酸到蛋白质需要有合成者。这就需要有RNA，因为RNA是蛋白质的合成者[1-6]。基因虽有与RNA互补的信息，但仅仅是信息，要制造RNA除了信息外还必须有转录酶，它能建立3’、5’-磷酸二酯键使单核苷酸聚合成RNA。也就是说要使孟德尔看到豌豆的黄或绿，除了基因，转录酶是另一个必要元素。基因与转录酶合作才会出现性状。这些都是分子生物学里的事实。细胞生物学及发育生物学事实同样否定了孟德尔的第2点假定。1.没有细胞的初始转录酶系（简称为TS）就没有生命。世界上任何细胞若不含有自己的TS其基因组就不可能被转录从而就不可能有生命；换句话说，细胞的TS是亲代必须遗传给子代的物质。2. 没有TS就没有性状。任何生物其一生的性状既不起源于基因组也不起源于TS，而是起源于其第一只细胞（如受精卵）的初始转录酶系（TS）对基因组发动的第一次转录。也就是说，一切性状都起源于其基因组与TS的合作。3. 没有TS就没有遗传。因为要遗传必须能复制，而基因组却不能复制。所有细胞的基因组得到复制都经历如下过程：

   基因组×TS→全细胞周期内的RNA与蛋白质→2（基因组×TS）。

在这过程中基因组与TS是通过互相合作才实现复制的。为了复制基因组必须依赖于上述过程中产生的DNA复制酶去为新的DNA建立3’、5’-磷酸二酯键；而TS必须要有基因组上记录的TS的氨基酸序列的信息。总之，孟德尔学说只是部分地正确。基因确实是符合孟德尔定律的遗传因子，但基因并不能制造性状，基因只是决定性状因子的构成元素之一。每一个性状都是由基因及转录酶两个元素合作制造的。

孟德尔怎么会失误的？  表面上，有怎么样（绿色或黄色）的性状取决于有怎么样（绿或黄）的基因，这就是为什么孟德尔会认为决定性状因子就是基因的道理。但内幕事实并非这么简单。孟德尔没有注意到：他并没有看到仅靠基因自己就制造出性状的事实；在他的实验中基因处于一个黑箱（受精卵）里，他没有排除过黑箱里还有其它与基因合作的决定性状因子的元素存在。在其它必备元素都存在的前提下基因只要是决定性状因子的必要元素之一就会使性状只因它出现而出现。所以孟德尔提出的假设应该是：基因必定至少是决定性状因子的元素之一。这与下面的事例非常相象。在一幢房子里，在白人男子进去后会产生白婴儿，在黑人男子进去后会产生黑婴儿。那么表面上，有怎么样（白或黑）的婴儿取决于有怎么样（白或黑）的男人，但内幕事实并非这么简单。人们没有看到过男人靠自己就制造出婴儿的事实。由于男人进入了黑箱——房子里，所以人们无法排除房子里有与男子合作制造婴儿的因子存在。在其它必备元素都存在的前提下男子只要是制造婴儿的必要元素之一就会使婴儿只因他出现而出现。所以正确的结论应该是：男子必定是造成婴儿因子的必备元素之一。

（参考文献见英文稿末）