What is a gene?

Did you know? Genes talk to each other. Genes and the areas around them provide essential instructions for many different functions. Scientists used to think a gene was a simple thing, that it was a linear sequence of base pairs. That it would start in one place and continue to end at another. But genes are not so simple.

Genes have parts. The parts don’t operate in isolation. Some parts are far away from each other, connected by interacting networks. They sit on long strands of DNA that bend and turn to bring the parts closer together. Our genomes are dynamic and plastic. 

A gene is a concept. Scientists have a new definition: a gene is a collection of elements that bind us together. They are players in a group of interrelated and complicated functions that work together — to make us tick.

Why is a new definition important? Because the adjusted perspective opens a portal to expanding our understanding of biology. There’s so much to discover about how the science-in-us works.