What is a gene?

[Ron Kagan]

In article <1994Feb9.172822.2013 at iitmax.iit.edu> Mark D. Garfinkel,
garfinkl at iitmax.iit.edu writes:
>	We've recently had a series of articles that raised & discussed
>questions concerning "what is a chromosome?" and how to effectively
>present this material to students.
>
>	No less vexing, to me, is the question "what is a gene?" and how
>to teach *that* body of ideas and data. This is a question that, both
>from my own experience & from rumors I've heard over the years, can
>blow away even a Ph.D.-candidacy-exam student because it seems so simple.
>
>	Any thoughts on the matter?
>
>
>-- 
>Mark D. Garfinkel (e-mail: garfinkl at iitmax.acc.iit.edu)
>My views are my own, which is why they're copyright 1994


How about: 

	  A gene is a segment of DNA/RNA that, when
transcribed/reverse-transcribed, 
		leads to a biologically functional product.

This covers genes that code for proteins, genes that code for nucleic
acids (e.g: tRNA genes), and retroviral genes.

Comments?

Ron Kagan
rkagan at ewald.mbi.ucla.edu