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It Takes Two to Tango: Genotyping and Phenotyping in Genome-Wide Association Studies

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Abstract

In this article we examine the “phenotype” concept in light of recent technological advances in Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS). By observing the technology and its presuppositions, we put forward the thesis that at least in this case genotype and phenotype are effectively coidentifled one by means of the other. We suggest that the coidentiflcation of genotype-phenotype couples in expression-based GWAS also indicates a conceptual dependence, which we call “co-deñnition.” We note that viewing these terms as codeflned runs against possible expectations, viz., that genotypes and phenotypes could ultimately be expressed independently from one another. In addition, the co-definition of genotypes and phenotypes in this context emphasizes the correlative (rather than mechanistic) character of both genotypes and phenotypes in GWAS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel

    Ohad Nachtomy

  2. Department of Philosophy, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

    Ohad Nachtomy

  3. Department of Humanities and Arts, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

    Yaron Ramati

  4. Tel-Hai Academic College, Upper Galilee, Israel

    Ayelet Shavit

  5. Department of Computer Science, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

    Zohar Yakhini

Authors
  1. Ohad Nachtomy
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  2. Yaron Ramati
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  3. Ayelet Shavit
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  4. Zohar Yakhini
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Correspondence to Ohad Nachtomy.

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Nachtomy, O., Ramati, Y., Shavit, A. et al. It Takes Two to Tango: Genotyping and Phenotyping in Genome-Wide Association Studies. Biol Theory 4, 294–301 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1162/biot.2009.4.3.294

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1162/biot.2009.4.3.294

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