Paul H. SilvermanCourtesy of Paul H. SilvermanFor more than 50 years scientists have operated under a set of seemingly incontrovertible assumptions about genes, gene expression, and the consequences thereof. Their mantra: One gene yields one protein; genes beget messenger RNA, which in turn begets protein; and most critically, the gene is deterministic in gene expression and can therefore predict disease propensities.Yet during the last five years, data have revealed inadequacies in this theory.

Model History Congratulations on the excellent supplement of June 2 on model organisms.1 The section on Caenorhabditis elegans brought back memories for a 78-year-old experimental biologist. While celebrating the appropriate Nobel recognition of Sydney Brenner, Robert Horvitz, and John Sulston for their outstanding contributions to science using C. elegans as a model organism, I am sure that they would want to acknowledge the role of Berkeley biologist Ellsworth C. Dougherty. In the late