Does this rehabilitate Lysenkoism?
I am a little confused by how there can be epigenetic genetic modifications. I'm not a biologist, but it seems to me that if it's epigenetic, it's not genetic and vice-versa.
I am a little confused by how there can be epigenetic genetic modifications. I'm not a biologist, but it seems to me that if it's epigenetic, it's not genetic and vice-versa.
Epigenetics is a recent discovery that the genes can be muted or not expressed).
The mechanism is that parts of the DNA strand often curl themselves up in a ball which prevents themselves from being replicated/expressed. Researchers are discovering there are many factors that influence this behavior.
It is indeed not a modification of the genetic code. And the transmission of epigenetic state from one generation to the next is much less straightforward.
But there is another lasting effect of the attack, hidden deep in the genes of
Syrian families. The grandchildren of women who were pregnant during the siege —
grandchildren who never experienced such violence themselves — nonetheless bear
marks of it in their genomes. Passed down through their mothers, this genetic
imprint offers the first human evidence of a phenomenon previously documented
only in animals: The genetic transmission of stress across multiple generations.
The article mentions Hama, where a massacre occurred, and 40 years later the inhabitants still show epigenetic changes caused by stress. Surely the environment still being stressful is more to blame than their ancestor's genetic memory.
There's great danger of misinterpreting this kind of research to bolster ideological agendas. I've seen this misused as "my grandpa was a victim of the holocaust, so I, born into and living a comfortable and peaceful life, am also a holocaust victim and deserve respect".