Celebrating 200 Years of Gregor Mendel

The Tale of the Gene

Some say ‘I’ travelled from a world so far,

To some ‘I’ was dwelling in a laboratory jar.

Few saw my molecular birth, with a spark, reduction and mirth

Others anticipated my mysterious arrival on the Earth!

‘I’ am the ‘gene’, and

This is an abridged tale of my life.

In a bubbling soup of oceanic churns,

It seems that the proteins are enjoying their turn.

A dream long lived, rushing into a world of big,

‘I’ was yet to be born, with RNA wearing the crown.

With years and years passing by,

‘I’ am offering my life-services, thy.

Waking up to a morning,

Held in some twists and turns.

Finding myself bound in a structure stronger than before,

The deoxyribonucleic acid it seems it is called.

For once upon a time, ‘I’ had water all around,

To my surprise, I have forced myself above the ground.

‘I’ observe as ‘I’ lay unnoticed for thousands of years,

Developing into forms that were never there.

How ‘I’ spread was a fascinating mystery,

Till a monk worked out my history.

Shuffling the wisdom through violet and white,

He named me ‘factors’ at that time.

The mystery now gradually unfolds,

For now ‘I’ became the biologist’s gold.

She caught me jumping, and called me transposons,

Some saw me moving on my transport of chromosomes.

‘I’ was still a covet, hiding the secrets of life,

Till the time Franklin, Watson and Crick arrived.

They looked me well, up and down,

Developed a ‘Central Dogma’ keeping me around.

For you know, my nature to keep life-functioning at stake,

What made me so powerful was a mistake.

‘I’ can grant a new feature of my choice,

This is the reason I come in your genome, twice.

For what ‘I’ have given away in the form of brilliant molecules,

You have used them on me for your own good.

Some broke me and tore me apart,

To understand me better,

Find it, move it, lose it was their art.

‘I’ was given a new look,

With molecular scissors trimming me in every nook.

‘I’ was tailored, engineered and ‘I’ was probed,

‘I’ was released in the market with an updated role.

The man may think he knows me well,

Yet there’s so much to venture into how ‘I’ dwell.

‘I’ am the gene that lies behind the nature that you see,

The bacteria, animals and the tree.

‘I’ am strong, yet so fragile,

‘I’ am always on an evolutionary ride.

The discoveries related to me shall never end,

But bidding adieu for the time!

Prerna Aggarwal