The gene revisited: historical foundations and postgenomic complexity

The gene has remained a central organizing concept in biology for more than a century, yet its definition has become increasingly difficult to reconcile with contemporary molecular and genomic evidence. This article combines a historical review with a conceptual perspective to examine the evolution of the gene concept from Mendelian heredity to postgenomic biology. Early gene concepts assumed discreteness and stable relationships between genes and traits. These assumptions were highly productive but became inadequate as gene regulation, RNA processing, epigenetic modification, and long-range genomic interactions were discovered. Rather than converging on a refined definition, biological research progressively expanded the range of phenomena that gene concepts were required to accommodate. By synthesizing key developments across classical genetics, molecular biology, and genomics, this review explains why defining the gene has become empirically challenging while the gene itself remains indispensable in biological practice. On this basis, a pragmatic working definition of the gene is proposed that is grounded in DNA sequence and reproducible transcriptional output under regulatory control, while remaining compatible with contemporary genomic research.