I think this is simply another facet of the field that’s called “epigenetics”, the realisation that the simple model of <<genes make RNA makes proteins makes functions>> is hopelessly inadequate to explain how the body works.

It’s rather wonderful because the Human Genome Project was supposed to make the “blueprint of life” fully available to the perpetrators and with this, they could rationally engineer everything.

Not so fast!!

Luckily for us, knowing a bunch of sequence information is all but useless. It very rarely “explains” anything let alone everything.

Also, I remember the mute silence & confusion when we were presented with the emerging information that our entire genome appeared to code for fewer than 30,000 proteins. Some apparently simple organisms appear to code for more different proteins than does the human genome.

Very few human illnesses are “monogenic”, that is, caused by a defect in or absence of a single gene product. Who’s really surprised about this? I wasn’t. I have always appreciated that biology is extraordinarily complex and irreducible to simple unequivocal statements.

I wouldn’t at this point get too excited or concerned about yet one more influence on expression of genes or behavior of cells.

Even if all speculation is right, I’ll tell you this with confidence: it will not give rise to a simple way to manipulate our biology. It just doesn’t work simply & mechanically like that.