The molecular basis for epigenetics was discovered in the 1980s and for the past thirty years or so non-genome-based inheritance has been a pretty hot scientific topic.
This only seems surprising because for most of us our biology education ends with 1953, when the structure of DNA was discovered. We didn't learn about epigenetics (1980s) or retroviruses (1970s) or horizontal gene transfer (discovered in the 20s but importance was only realized in the 90s).. The biological world is full of weird, mind-blo
I remember reading an article about something similar in humans, with regards to food and obesity. The premise is that if your grandfather suffered starvation for a significant period of time, you would be more likely to be overweight as your body would overcompensate for potential lack of food.
The concept is not new, it is routinely taught to biochemistry students and has been observed in humans. Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Sounds like one of those AI-generated studies that is going to be disproved tomorrow.
Not likely that it will be disproved. Mainly because this is not a "landmark" study. This is a specific example of a general phenomenon which is already widely recognized.
The molecular basis for epigenetics was discovered in the 1980s and for the past thirty years or so non-genome-based inheritance has been a pretty hot scientific topic.
This only seems surprising because for most of us our biology education ends with 1953, when the structure of DNA was discovered. We didn't learn about epigenetics (1980s) or retroviruses (1970s) or horizontal gene transfer (discovered in the 20s but importance was only realized in the 90s).. The biological world is full of weird, mind-blo
I remember reading an article about something similar in humans, with regards to food and obesity. The premise is that if your grandfather suffered starvation for a significant period of time, you would be more likely to be overweight as your body would overcompensate for potential lack of food.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/a... [nih.gov]
"What they're showing is extremely convincing; I would say that it's a landmark in the field," says Leandro Quadrana
I'd even go so far as to say that it's a Lamarck in the field.
The concept is not new, it is routinely taught to biochemistry students and has been observed in humans. Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Sounds like one of those AI-generated studies that is going to be disproved tomorrow.
Not likely that it will be disproved. Mainly because this is not a "landmark" study. This is a specific example of a general phenomenon which is already widely recognized.