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Just in case this is not known, human generic code is more than just DNA. Most important parts of what encodes us are: - DNA - epigenetic markers on the DNA w
by pergadad 7y ago
Just in case this is not known, human generic code is more than just DNA.
Most important parts of what encodes us are:
- DNA
- epigenetic markers on the DNA which modulate which parts of the DNA are active. You influence these and pass them on to your children (as men) and grandchildren (as women, as girls are born with all egg cells they'll ever have)
- cell organelles which copy the DNA, ensure the cell has food and lives, etc. These tend to be independent cells that were at some point captured by our own cells. So they have their own genetic code. These you only inherit from your mother (dad gives half the DNA with epigenetic markers, mom the other half (also with markers) and everything else.
And of course much of what we are is shaped through gestation as well, I.e. the mother's body sends not just nutrients but also hormones etc that regulate gestation (and vice versa the child sends various messages to mom, up to even own cells in case of serious illness or accident or the mother).
Fascinating stuff.
- thaumasiotes 7y ago> independent cells that were at some point captured by our own cells It makes a little more sense to think of them as "domesticated" rather than "captured".
- JulianMorrison 7y agoDomesticated and implanted, unable to survive outside the host, we're talking full H.R. Giger here.
- loufe 7y agoI found the egg claim interesting so I gave it a quick search: looks like there may be cases where these eggs can be replaced (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/3/120229-women-health-ovaries-eggs-reproduction-science/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/3/120229-women-...) but your claim does generally hold true. Wow! It gave me a weird feeling thinking that men would be procreating directly in a sense with their partner's mother.
- taneq 7y agoDNA isn’t data, or even code. DNA is a machine that builds things.
- bouncycastle 7y agoSo, DNA is the compiled executable?
- jhrmnn 7y agoNot sure what OP meant, but I wouldn’t say DNA is the machine. The ribosome is. But DNA is certainly much more than just code to build proteins. Or rather, it strongly interacts with its enviroment, so trying to understand its function in isolation will give you just the tip of an iceberg. In CS language, there is a lot of global state.
- quickthrower2 7y agoIt’s a complex lisp macro then?
- markdown 7y ago> You influence these and pass them on to your children (as men) and grandchildren (as women, as girls are born with all egg cells they'll ever have) While I've heard this before, I never gave it much thought until just now. Is it fair to say that a child gets no DNA from her mother? Or in other words, each child is a mix of the DNA of their father and that of their maternal grandparents?
- labawi 7y agoThe half-DNA of eggs is selected as they divide from ancestor cells. Eggs of a woman (baby/fetus) develop while in mother's womb, but they are more immediately inside the fetus, are formed from the cells of the fetus and are descendants of the same single cell zygote as (most) of the cells that form the woman's body.
- labawi 7y ago> epigenetic markers .. You influence .. and pass on to .. grandchildren (as women..) AFAICT, a woman significantly influences markers on the eggs (future grandchild) developing in her child (fetus/embrio) in her womb, but at the same time, she influences all the other cells (child). Some (even critical) processes are probably more influenced by the grandmother, but I wouldn't minimize the mother's effect.