Laubichler Manfred D, Stadler Peter F, Prohaska Sonja J, Nowick Katja
School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287-4501, USA.
Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, USA.
Theory Biosci. 2015 Dec;134(3-4):143-7. doi: 10.1007/s12064-015-0215-5. Epub 2015 Oct 8.
Function is a central concept in biological theories and explanations. Yet discussions about function are often based on a narrow understanding of biological systems and processes, such as idealized molecular systems or simple evolutionary, i.e., selective, dynamics. Conflicting conceptions of function continue to be used in the scientific literature to support certain claims, for instance about the fraction of "functional DNA" in the human genome. Here we argue that all biologically meaningful interpretations of function are necessarily context dependent. This implies that they derive their meaning as well as their range of applicability only within a specific theoretical and measurement context. We use this framework to shed light on the current debate about functional DNA and argue that without considering explicitly the theoretical and measurement contexts all attempts to integrate biological theories are prone to fail.
功能是生物学理论和解释中的核心概念。然而，关于功能的讨论往往基于对生物系统和过程的狭隘理解，例如理想化的分子系统或简单的进化（即选择）动力学。相互冲突的功能概念在科学文献中仍被用于支持某些主张，比如关于人类基因组中“功能性DNA”的比例。在此我们认为，所有具有生物学意义的功能解释必然依赖于上下文。这意味着它们的意义以及适用范围仅在特定的理论和测量背景中才能得以确立。我们运用这一框架来阐明当前关于功能性DNA的争论，并指出若不明确考虑理论和测量背景，所有整合生物学理论的尝试都容易失败。
