Nature and nurture: Interaction and coaction

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Abstract
The sophistry of the “Nature versus Nurture” formulation is becoming ever more apparent as a consequence of the rapid advances in understanding of the basic mechanisms of heredity and in the application of this knowledge to a wide spectrum of issues of human health and welfare. It is clear that a more accurate formulation would emphasize the interaction and coaction of genetic and environmental factors in their influence on complex phenotypes. Furthermore, the potential dependence of the influence of a particular gene on other genes in the system is increasingly realized. This paper documents these perspectives by examples of gene‐environment interaction and gene‐gene interaction both from animal model and from human research that reveal both the potential power and subtlety of these interactive effects.