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The invention and translation of the word "gene" is perfect | Source: pixabay.com.

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The substance represented by genes is very important in life, and its discovery is a great milestone in the history of science. The invention and translation of the word "gene" is also perfect.

Shang Zhou, a German immunologist and columnist of Intellectuals, introduced the origin of the word gene in this article.

Writing | Shang Zhou

Edit | Chen Xiaoxue

There are two ways to translate technical terms, one is free translation (meaning translation) and the other is transliteration (pronunciation translation). It is better to reach the standard in free translation and transliteration, but there are few such nouns. A rare example is "gene"

Translating "gene" into gene meets the requirements in meaning and pronunciation, which is obviously better than the translation of other well-known biological terms (such as cells, organs and tissues).

So, where did the word "gene" come from?

Mendel's "Primitive Base" and "Element"

Words do not appear out of thin air. It is necessary to create a new term only when people need to describe a new thing. The origin of the word "gene" is the first time that human beings realized the existence of genes. The first person who realized the existence of genes was Mendel who discovered the law of heredity, but he didn't create a new term for it.

From 1854 to 1863, Mendel conducted hybridization experiments with 22 different pea varieties and found different characteristics of peas (such as seed color and shape, pod color and shape, etc. ) controlled by different genetic materials from parents, the genetic materials of parents will be separated when producing germ cells. Now we know that these genetic materials are genes. However, in the19th century, when there were only ordinary optical microscopes, people's understanding of life remained at the cellular level. Although they know the existence of nuclei, they don't know chromosomes, let alone DNA.

Faced with the mysterious genetic material that controls pea traits, Mendel used two different words to describe it in his paper "Plant Hybridization Experiment" [1].

In the result part of the paper with "hybrid of germ cells" as the unit, the first paragraph is described as follows:

Figure 1 screenshot of Mendel's plant hybridization experiment | Source: biopersitylibrary

"... as far as experience is concerned, we found that in each case, it was confirmed that only when the egg cells and fertilized pollen have the same properties (primordia) can they form unchangeable offspring, just like the normal fertilization of purebred plants ..."

The word "protozoa" in German has seven meanings (including creation, investment, facilities, installations, structures, nature and materials), and it may be more appropriate to translate it into "nature" in Mendel's words. Here, Mendel uses the word "primordium" to describe the genetic material contained in pea pollen cells and egg cells, because the paper has described the hybridization of single traits and multiple traits before this paragraph. The genetic material here refers not to a single gene, but to all genetic materials in multiple genes or the whole germ cell.

Interestingly, Mendel only used the word "protozoa" once in the whole article. In the conclusion of the article, when discussing the genetic material that controls traits, he used another term "element", which was used 10 times. Elements have three different meanings: basic components, characteristics and factors. From the context of Mendel's thesis, it is more appropriate to translate "Elemente" here into "factor".

Fig. 2 Screenshot of Mendel's plant hybridization experiment | Source: biopersitylibrary.

The specific meaning of "Elemente" here can be judged by this passage in the article.

"For those hybrids whose offspring have changed, we can assume that there is some coordination between the different factors of egg cells and pollen cells, thus making the formation of cells as the basis of hybrids possible; However, the balance between different factors is only temporary and will not last the whole life of hybrid plants. Since the habits of plants have not changed during the whole growth period, we must further assume that only when germ cells develop can differential factors be liberated from forced combination. In the process of forming these cells, all existing factors participate in a completely free and equal distribution, and only in this way will they be separated from each other. In this way, the types of egg cells and pollen produced are as many as possible combinations of factors. "

From this passage, Mendel not only talked about the separation of different "elements" from parents, but also talked about the combination of different "factors". So, the "factor" here refers to a single gene. The above-mentioned "primordium" refers to the whole genetic material in a cell. It is precisely because of this subtle difference that Mendel chose two different words to describe it.

Although Mendel used these two words to describe the genetic material at the whole level and single gene level, it is even more impossible for them to enter people's field of vision, because his classic paper "Plant Hybrid Experiment" has been ignored for a long time. Until 1900, Dutch botanist Hugo Defrees, German botanist Carl Collens and Swiss botanist erich Chemak published in the Bulletin of the German Botanical Society (Ber. German robot. Jesselsch ), which independently partially reproduces Mendel's discovery [2-4]. Among the three "discoverers of Mendel" (note: their contributions to this subject are controversial in academic circles, and will not be discussed in detail here), two of them also described the mysterious material element E.

Corinth's Annabel

Collins was born in Munich, Germany on 1864. At the age of 28, he obtained the position of botany lecturer at the University of Tubingen, Germany, where he spent six years conducting plant hybridization experiments and reproduced some results of Mendel. Among Mendel's three discoverers, Collins knows Mendel's discovery best. His paper was published in the Bulletin of the German Botanical Association in 1900, entitled "Mendel's Law of Hybrid Offspring Behavior" [3].

In this paper, Collens discussed in detail the genetic materials that control traits. Interestingly, Collins used the word "protozoa" instead of "elements", and the word "An * * *" was mentioned 22 times in the whole paper. For example, in the following passage:

Figure 3 Screenshot of Collens' paper "Mendel's Law of Hybrid Offspring Behavior" | Source: biopersitylibrary

"In order to explain these facts, we must assume (just like Mendel) that after the fusion of reproductive nuclei, the nature of one trait, that is, recessive trait (green in our example), is inhibited by another trait, that is, dominant trait, so all embryos are yellow. Although the nature of recessive traits is latent, the nature of the two traits is completely separated before the reproductive nucleus is finally formed, so half of the reproductive nuclei accept the recessive nature, that is, green; The other half accepts the dominant nature, which is yellow ... "

From the context of the article, the "nature" described by Collens is actually a single gene that controls traits, not the sum of all genetic materials. So although he used the word "nature", like the word "factor" used by Mendel, it stands for gene. One possible reason why Collins chose "nature" instead of "factor" is that he was influenced by Carl Wilhelm von negri, a botanist at the University of Munich. Geli)。 Just one year before Collins entered the University of Munich (1884), negri published his masterpiece "Mechanical-Physiology Theory der Abstammungslehre", in which the word "Anlage" was used when talking about genetic material. But negri, who believed in fusion inheritance, used the word "primordium" to describe not genes, but the whole genetic material.

Mendel and Collins were clearly aware of the existence of gene, but they did not create a new term for it, but tried to describe it with existing terms.

The first person who really tried to invent new terms for genes was De Frith.

De Frith's "Pan-continent"

De Fries 1848 was born in the Netherlands. On his 30th birthday, he was awarded the position of Professor of Plant Physiology at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and was elected as an academician of the Dutch Academy of Science and Art in the same year. 1899, de Fries wrote one of his masterpieces, The Intracellular Theory of Ubiquitous Action. Although he was Dutch, this book by De Frith was published in German, which was more popular in the scientific community at that time. The publishing house is Gustav Fischer of Jena, Germany [5].

"The word' theory of' (Pan genesis) includes two Greek words: Pan and genesis, the former meaning all (pan) and the latter meaning birth and birth. This is a theory about heredity put forward by Darwin in 1868, and its core is mixed inheritance. According to theory of pangenesis, cells in all parts of the organism have specific self-propagating' micro-buds' (later also called micro-bud theory of pangenesis). These' micro-buds' can be concentrated in germ cells by various systems, and the' micro-buds' of parents' germ cells will merge with each other to form new offspring. Different from theory of pangenesis, the core of modern genetics initiated by Mendel is granular inheritance, that is, the genes controlling traits are independent units, and the two alleles from parents will not fuse and will be separated from each other when the next generation forms germ cells. "

The "intracellular theory of ubiquitination" put forward by De Frith in 1898 is somewhat special. On the one hand, it is still theory of pangenesis; on the other hand, it abandons the fusion inheritance and puts forward the concept of granularity inheritance. It is precisely because of the concept of particle inheritance that de Fries put forward the word "theory of pangenesis" on the basis of the word "theory of pangenesis" created by Darwin, and described this concept:

Figure 4 "Intracellular theory of pangenesis" by De Fries makes a detailed comment on "theory of pangenesis" | Source: biopersitylibrary.

"... each germ cell must potentially contain all the factors that make up the characteristics of the relevant species. Therefore, visible genetic phenomena are all manifestations of the characteristics of the smallest invisible particles hidden in living matter. In fact, in order to explain all phenomena, people must assume special particles for each genetic attribute. I call these units Pangu genes. These ubiquitins are too small to be seen, but their chemical molecules are completely different in order. These ubiquitins can proliferate with cell division and can be distributed in all or almost all cells of an organism. They are either latent or active, but they can reproduce in both States ... "

As can be seen from the above, the "cosmic child" mentioned by De Frith is actually a gene. The most valuable point of the theory of ubiquitous cell put forward by De Frith is that he put forward the concept of granular inheritance and denied the previous fusion inheritance. De Frith was able to do this because he had conducted a plant hybridization experiment for six or seven years before, which reproduced Mendel's discovery of separation phenomenon. This made him realize that the genetic material from both parents will not merge, but will still separate when producing germ cells.

Although "Pangene" is a new term created for genes, the prefix (Pan) of this word is not suitable for describing genes, which can be said to be superfluous. 1909, Danish botanist Wilhelm Ludvig Johannsen further refined the word "gene" on the basis of the word "Pangene".

Johnson's "gene"

Wilhelm Ludvig Johannsen/Kloc-0 was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1957, and/Kloc-0 was awarded the position of Botany Professor at the University of Copenhagen in 1905. From 65438 to 0909, he published his masterpiece Principles of Accurate Genetics. Like theory of pangenesis in the Cell by De Frith, Johansen's Principles of Accurate Genetics was also published in German by Gustav Fischer Publishing House in Jena, Germany [6].

Figure 5 Screenshot of Johnson's book Elements of Accurate Genetics Theory | Source: Biology Press Library

This book consists of a series of lectures by Johnson. In the eighth lecture, he coined the word "gene". At the same time, Johnson also created a series of academic terms commonly used in genetics today, such as Genotyp, Phaenotyp, homozygote and Hetrezygote.

About why the word "gene" was created, Johnson said this in his book:

"Sex cells contain' something', which determines the characteristics of organisms produced by fertilization. This' thing' is usually called '(Anlage), but this statement is quite vague. The word' (Pangene' put forward by Darwin is often used instead of' (Anlage'). However, the choice of the word' (Pangene') is not satisfactory, because it has a dual structure and contains two stems, pan and gene. Here we only need to consider the meaning of the latter. Therefore, judging from a well-known word of Darwin, we are only interested in the last syllable' gene' in order to use it to replace the bad and ambiguous word' gene' ... "

In the above passage, Johnson described more clearly what genes are than any previous scholars, that is, "something" in cells can determine the characteristics of organisms. He also pointed out that the words "protozoa" and "pan-gene" used to describe genes were inappropriate. The former is too vague, and the latter is preceded by redundant modifiers. Therefore, Johnson separated "gene" from "pan-gene".

Next, Johnson further explained the benefits of using the word "gene":

"... the short word" gene "has many advantages because it can be easily combined with other names. If we think of an attribute (such as wealth) determined by a certain' gene', we can easily say' the gene of wealth' instead of the more complicated statement' the gene that determines wealth'. "

I don't know why, when Johnson mentioned the words used by predecessors to describe genes, he only mentioned Darwin, but didn't talk about De Frith's invention of the word "cosmic child". Also, Johnson did not mention the word "element" first used by Mendel. However, Johnson did not forget to attribute the landmark discovery of genes to Mendel:

The nature of "..." gene "has no sufficient basis. However, this has no effect on the effectiveness of genetic research; Enough to confirm the existence of such a' gene'. Its discovery is one of the most important achievements of gregor Mendel's experimental research on plant hybridization ... "

When the word "gene" was coined in 1909, as Johansen mentioned above, people didn't know the natural properties of gene, only knew its existence and knew that it was the determinant of biological characteristics. But this is enough, because it opens up a brand-new and important research field. Later, people know that genes are part of chromosomes; Later, people know that genes are DNA fragments encoding polypeptides. ...

From "Gene" to "Gene"

Translating "gene" into Chinese "gene" not only realizes free translation and transliteration at the same time, but also improves the accuracy of the word in meaning. As mentioned above, the word "gene" comes from Greek, and its original meaning is "birth" and "origin", which is not consistent with the original meaning of "genetic material that determines biological characteristics". However, the translation into "gene" (basic factor) is closer to the original intention, because "basic factor" covers Mendel's "element", Collins' "primitive base" and Johnson's "gene" at the same time. To some extent, translating "gene" into "gene" is an improvement and transcendence of the original word.

So, who made such a perfect translation?

According to the research of Professor Xie Yongjiu from the Medical College of Manitoba University in Canada [7], in the existing Chinese materials, the word "gene" was first translated by Mr. Pan Guangdan, who wrote in the article "The Biological View of Culture" published in 1930 [8]:

"We are not going to say more about heredity. Several principles of heredity, such as Whiteman's theory that the essence is continuous and the essence is relatively independent, Munter's three laws, new Darwinism or acquired inheritance following Webster's theory, Du Wuli's mutation theory, John Hangsheng and Morgan's' gene' genetic theory, are all considered effective by most biologists and are well known in biology textbooks. "

It is no accident that Pan Guangdan first translated "gene" into "gene" in 1930 (maybe earlier). 23 years old, 1922 studied in the United States, 1926 obtained a degree in biology from Columbia University, and Morgan, a famous geneticist, was appointed as a professor. Although Pan Guangdan later became an outstanding sociologist, he did some research on eugenics in his early years, for example, he published an English paper "Eugenics and China" in 1923, and then introduced eugenics to the Chinese world. Perhaps it is because of his dual background of natural science and social science that he achieved the perfect translation of "gene".

References:

1. Mendel, g, 1866. Verh。 Naturally. Version. Bulun 4: 3–47.

2. Defrees, the space of H. Bastard. Ber。 German robot. Jesselsch 18 (3): 83, 1900.

3. Collens ·c·g· Mendel's Declaration is a supplement to the Declaration. Ber。 German robot. Jesselsch , 18 (4): 158- 168, 1900.

4. chemak, e? This is a kind of pea. German Botanical Garden 18: 232-239, 1900.

5. Hugo de Vries. Intracellular ubiquitination. Gustav Fisher, Jena.

6. West Johnson, 1909. Gustav Fisher, Jena.

7.ranslation.pdf

8. The second volume of Pan Guangdan's collected works, edited by Pan Naimu and Pan Naihe, Beijing-Peking University Publishing House, 1994 10, ISBN 7-301-02571-8,318-.

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