Quote:
Originally Posted by seamus
But of course an animal can be changed by their environment, but those changes aren't passed down to their offspring. Take circumcision, no matter how many generations cut off the foreskin, the DNA for the foreskin isn't removed.
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I understand 100% that you are trying to teach poor piff here the basics. but what happened to mr. stickler? how about epigenetic changes (environmental experience-driven modifications to your DNA)? those can be totally heritable... they just wash out after a couple generations. and they are a relatively recent discovery. but real none-the-less.
some things that cause epigenetic changes:
- mother's diet
- mother's stress level during gestation
You can acquire epigenetic modifications to your own DNA through your own experiences, and those then influence the expression of your own genes for the rest of your life.
basically, parts of your DNA get permanently locked up so certain genes can't be expressed.
say, genes for certain stress hormones. young victims of verbal and physical abuse grow up to have highly-stereotyped epigenetic binding patterns on genes for specific stress response hormones...
its super fucked up, but also super cool.
these modifications can sometimes be inherited for a couple generations, but then they go away. so they aren't permanent to the gene pool.
ok byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee