quote:
>  Dr. kerr spoke about combinations of genes in AHb over 35 years ago. he
> isolated three which he *claimed* caused aggression in AHB.

Greetings
With all due respect to Dr. Kerr and others, I would have to say that the
notion that there is a "gene" for this or that trait is rapidly becoming
outmoded. To put it simply, the term gene is like the term atom. The Greeks
first hypothesized the atom as the smallest unit of a given substance that
retains the properties of that substance. Hundreds of years later, the atom
was defined in terms of chemistry. The term "gene" came into use when
people thought there had to be a gene for each character, like a blue eye
gene, or a Down's syndrome gene.

But even the idea of the atom is no longer that definitive: atoms are shown
to be constructed of ever smaller parts, and the  multitude of substances
can best be defined by their molecules. Even a slight reapportionment of
atoms in these molecules is expressed as very different properties.
Molecules of carbon and hydrogen range from life giving sugar to poisonous
alcohol, with only a slight rearrangement. Furthermore, the presence of an
element like chlorine does not automatically make a molecule deadly
poisonous, as in sodium chloride (salt).

Anyway, molecular biology is like that. You hear less about genes and more
about "sequences". These are strings of molecules on the genome that
produce various characteristics. So called "gene-splicing" consists of
inserting these sequences into the genetic material of organisms.
Unfortunately, it is not an exact science. Much remains to be discovered
about the function of the sequences and how they act in consort. Some parts
seem to control external characters, like eye color. Some sections are now
referred to as "markers" inasmuch as the function of the section may or may
not be totally understood, but it can serve for identification purposes.
Evidently, there are whole strings that *appear to* have no affect, like
blanks pages in a book.

This is one thing that bothers GM skeptics: the function of the various
sequences is not thoroughly understood. Some researchers have succeeded in
manipulating this material and produced startling results, without fully
understanding genetics. It's like driving a car without knowing what goes
on under the hood. We all do it, it's not a problem. But we also are well
acquainted with someone who *does* know how the engine works, and how to
fix it if it starts giving trouble.

pb