 So if the motivation for defining the genome in terms of sequence is to capture its informational content, the definition fails to serve its goal. Indeed, the definition that will come closest to this goal is that which identifies the genome as the material object, the set of chromosomes (this interpretation of the genome is defended in detail in Barnes &amp; Dupré 2008). An implication of this definition that is often taken to be counterintuitive by biologists is that the genome will on this account encompass not only DNA, but the histone proteins that are material parts of the chromosomes. But of course the point of the preceding discussion is that the variable chemical states of the histones are, in fact, essential bases for some of the information inherent in the genome.