| Author: | Stefano |
|---|---|
| category: | Biology |
I am doing proofreading of a textbook and I spotted a quite frequent use of the term "protein-encoding genes". I reported it as an error, preferring "protein-coding genes".
Why? There is a strong difference between the two words:
- to encode means to perform an operation that transform some information from one representational form to another. Something that is performing the act of encoding is, for example, an encrypter, or a compressor.
- to code means to express information through a proper standard representation.
Saying "protein-encoding genes" literally means that the gene is an entity performing encoding on the proteins, that is, transforming a protein from one representational form to another. Saying instead "protein-coding genes" literally means that the gene expresses information relative to a protein, which is the correct one.
We could eventually say that the ribosome is performing decoding on a mRNA strand to transform its representation of information into a protein, assuming that in the Central Dogma picture, the DNA is the encoded information, and the protein is the decoded one.
Despite this, it looks like many biologists use this wrong wording as standard nomenclature. On Google, searching for "protein-coding genes" reports 442,000 results, while searching "protein-encoding genes" reports 56,000 results, fewer, but still relevant.