Saturday 3 November 2018

evolution - Is it the case that all changes in phenotype during life are not inheritable?


This came up in a talk with a friend. I wanted to clear this doubt. I've read about it before and did again after her remark (my thoughts didn't change: her concept is Lamarck's, not Darwin's), but wanted to clarify.



Regarding Evolution, nothing, absolutely nothing, that a person does to herself in life can be genetically inherited. It does not matter how much this person drinks, the changes they do to their body, how dark their skin gets over life etc. Such changes can not be transmitted to their offspring in any way, correct?


*Summary:*Is the assertion "You can not change in life what will be genetically inherited in any possible way" true?



Answer



The assertion "You cannot change in life what will be genetically inherited in any possible way" is true, as you cannot (healthily) change the DNA in your germ cells.


However, the assertion "You cannot change in life what will be inherited in any possible way" is wrong, because of epigenetics. Parts of your DNA are marked (in different ways), and this can be inherited and have an effect. E.g. the only causal difference between these two mice is the diet of their mothers:


Two mice of same genotype but different phenotype


Image source and a further explanation: Nutrition and the epigenome.


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