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>I also feel that this could maybe contradict what we learned from evolution theory. It doesn't, but the article doesn't go into this detail, so people unfamil
by sigmoid10 10mo ago
>I also feel that this could maybe contradict what we learned from evolution theory.
It doesn't, but the article doesn't go into this detail, so people unfamiliar with the field wouldn't understand why. The keyword is epigenetics. I.e. how certain genes become activated or deactivated through behaviour and/or environmental influences. But the DNA sequence itself remains unaltered. So no evolution necessary. There are basically a bunch of molecules than sit on top of your DNA that regulate gene expression. They don't just tell a cell to behave like a skin cell or a brain cell, they also regulate the entire cellular metabolism. The discovery that male sperm can also transmit this epigenetic information to offspring is relatively new, but now that we know that, it makes total sense that these gene-expression-modifying behaviours in fathers could affect their children. After all, they simply get to start with a good (or bad) bunch of epigenetic markers. They will not persist across many generations though, so it has no real long term effect on evolution. It may even be an evolved mechanism that allows organisms to respond to environmental changes on timeframes that would be prohibited by evolution.
- pcl 10mo ago> ”They will not persist across many generations though” Why not? Is there some tempering mechanism on epigenetic transfer? I could imagine that some sperm-conferred epigenetic markers could continue down the male descendants unbroken.
- jibal 10mo agoBecause chromosomes in nuclei reproduce via very sophisticated and highly regulated processes; random epigenetic molecules do not.
- cwmoore 10mo agoMakes me wonder about how the two interact in the human phenomenon of generational oscillations
- cwmoore 10mo agoIf I understand both correctly, a better answer to your question than sibling post is that yes, that could be imagined, but your dichotomy is not mutually exclusive, and the process described here is much more related to variable conditions of the environment and the parents’ health at the time of conception rather than to the replicable genetic structures.
- jibal 10mo agoNot all epigenetics is regulation of gene expression. The article says "these molecules transmit traits to offspring and that they can regulate embryonic development after fertilization" -- that's from the reporter, but I don't have faith that "transmit traits" is at all accurate--it certainly isn't true in the way that genes express traits. And then they quote an actual epigeneticist saying “We just don’t have really any understanding of how RNAs can do this, and that’s the hand-wavy part”
- sigmoid10 10mo ago>that's from the reporter, but I don't have faith that "transmit traits" is at all accurate It is pretty accurate, even if we don't understand all details yet. Here's a review article of the current research that's not from a popsci journalist: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37820-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37820-2