Epigenetics shocka: Changes usually don’t last, says study
| September 21, 2011 | Posted by News under Epigenetics, News |
Epigenetic variations between the generations: The third generation of lines 4 and 8 serve as references for the comparison of 10 lines after more than 30 generations. (Credit: © MPI for Developmental Biology)
From “Epigenetic Changes Often Don’t Last, Probably Have Limited Effects On Long-Term Evolution, Research Finds” (ScienceDaily, Sep. 20, 2011), we learn,
The first comprehensive inventory of epigenetic changes over several generations shows that these often do not last and therefore probably have limited effects on long-term evolution, according to scientists in Germany.
Using Arabidopsis, the workhorse of modern plant genetics, the researchers determined how often and where in the genome epigenetic modifications occur — and how often they disappear again. They found that epigenetic changes are many orders of magnitude more frequent than conventional DNA mutations, but also often short lived. They are therefore probably much less important for long-term evolution than previously thought.
Of course, if the epigenetic changes are many orders of magnitude more frequent, a small minority of them might be just as significant as genetic mutations. Or more. An obvious conclusion the researchers appear to back away from:
What makes epigenetics interesting for human health is the fact that some epigenetic changes can be triggered by external factors. There is evidence that nutrition or the bond between children and their parents can leave traces in the genome that can be passed on to the next generation. The limited stability of DNA methylation implies, however, that such differences do not necessarily last forever, which is probably not a bad idea because a famine might not last forever. It also means that altered DNA methylation often cannot become subject to natural selection.
It’s a good thing someone is letting the air out of the epigenetics balloon; it was in danger of becoming pop science, now maybe it’ll remain real science. It’ll be interesting to come back a decade later and see what’s turned up
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“The first comprehensive inventory of epigenetic changes over several generations shows that these often do not last and therefore probably have limited effects on long-term evolution”
Kudos to news for sharing a conclusion that contradicts overstated headlines like:
“Epigenetic signatures: Another blow to the “it’s in yer genes” industry”
“Move Over Mendel, It’s Time for Epigenetics!”
“Epigenetics as forerunner of design?”
Another Day, another extremely bad day to be a neo-Darwinist, because now, not only has epigentics falsified the genetic reductionism model upon which the modern synthesis of neo-Darwinism was built:
But now epigentics also provides no ‘escape hatch’ for a ‘extended’ materialistic theory of evolution which may have been postulated to explain body plan morphogenesis, which, of course, the modern synthesis had completely failed to explain in the first place:
Thus for IDists, epigenetics is the gift that keeps on giving. i.e. first it falsified the modern synthesis (Genetic Reductionism model)of neo-Darwinism, and next it crushed any hope of a ‘extending’ the neo-Darwinian model to include ‘permanent’ epigenetic changes in a new drastically revised model of neo-Darwinism (Lamarkism if you will):
note:
One example from biology, of many that could be cited, is this:
music
Epigenetics is not a magic fairy, but Darwinism is still dead.
Wow, you can really have it both ways if you spin it hard enough. Epigenetics is against evolution if it persists many generations, and against evolution if it is only transient. What an amazing thing the predictions of ID are.
By the way, BA77, epigenetic mechanisms serve to silence gene expression, so ‘genetic reductionism’ is sadly quite intact.
If you dispute this, please lead with a summary of how epigenetics works, so I know we’re remotely on the same page.
DrREC, if anyone is ‘spinning hard’ to avoid clear implications, and to serve a personal philosophical bias, it is you!!! indeed You claim:
Yet despite this allusion of DrREC to a regulatory role for epigenetic information, a ‘regulatory role’ governing gene expression which already strains the credibility of the Genetic Reductionism model, we find ‘body plan’ formation to be controlled by information that is ‘outside’ of the genes of DNA (outside of the Genetic Reductionism model):
Moreover DrREC, you simply do not have any evidence to show that mutations to DNA can effect body plan morphogenesis in a positive and novel way!!!
etc.. etc.. etc..
And DrREC, as if the preceding evidence was not enough to crush the materialistically inspired Genetic Reductionism model of the modern synthesis of neo-Darwinism, I once again remind you (‘regurgitate’ to use your words) that ‘non-local’ quantum information has been found, on a massive molecular scale throughout life, and that this ‘non-local’ quantum information must have a non-local ’cause’, that is outside of space-time, to explain its origination!!! i.e. it is impossible for ‘local’ material particles to be the primary source for the ‘non-local’ quantum information we find in life!!! This is more than a slight problem for genetic reductionism DrREC!!!
notes:
Neo-Darwinian evolution purports to explain all the wondrously amazing complexity of life on earth by reference solely to chance and necessity processes acting on energy and matter (i.e. purely material processes). In fact neo-Darwinian evolution makes the grand materialistic claim that the staggering levels of unmatched complex functional information we find in life, and even the ‘essence of life’ itself, simply ‘emerged’ from purely material processes. And even though this basic scientific point, of the ability of purely material processes to generate even trivial levels of complex functional information, has spectacularly failed to be established, we now have a much greater proof. This proof comes from the fact that it is now shown from quantum mechanics that ‘information’ is its own unique ‘physical’ entity. A physical entity that is shown to be completely independent of any energy-matter space-time constraints, i.e. it does not ‘emerge’ from any reductive material basis. Moreover this ‘transcendent information’ is shown to be dominant of energy-matter in that this ‘information’ is shown, among other things, to be the entity that is in fact constraining the energy-matter processes of the cell to be so far out of thermodynamic equilibrium from its environment.
The falsification for local realism (reductive materialism) was recently greatly strengthened:
of note: hidden variables were postulated to remove the need for ‘spooky’ forces, as Einstein termed them — forces that act instantaneously at great distances, thereby breaking the most cherished rule of relativity theory, that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. This following video shows a little bit of just how ‘spooky’ quantum entanglement truly is:
And yet, quantum entanglement, which rigorously falsified local realism (reductive materialism) as the complete description of reality, is now found in molecular biology on a massive scale!
i.e. It is very interesting to note that quantum entanglement, which conclusively demonstrates that ‘information’ in its pure ‘quantum form’ is completely transcendent of any time and space constraints, as well as ‘dominate of material particles, should be found in molecular biology on such a massive scale, for how can the quantum entanglement ‘effect’ in biology possibly be explained by a material (matter/energy space/time) ’cause’ when the quantum entanglement ‘effect’ falsified material particles as its own ‘causation’ in the first place? (A. Aspect) Appealing to the probability of various configurations of material particles, as neo-Darwinism does, simply will not help since a timeless/spaceless cause must be supplied which is beyond the capacity of the energy/matter particles themselves to supply! To give a coherent explanation for an effect that is shown to be completely independent of any time and space constraints one is forced to appeal to a cause that is itself
not limited to time and space! i.e. Put more simply, you cannot explain a effect by a cause that has been falsified by the very same effect you are seeking to explain! Improbability arguments of various ‘specified’ configurations of material particles, which have been a staple of the arguments against neo-Darwinism, simply do not apply since the cause is not within the material particles in the first place!
,,,To refute this falsification of neo-Darwinism, one must falsify Alain Aspect, and company’s, falsification of local realism (reductive materialism) by quantum entanglement!!!
As well this evidence dovetails into Dembski and Marks’s work on Conservation of Information quite nicely;,,,
,,,Encoded classical information, that has been found to be conserved by Dembski and Marks,,, encoded classical information such as what we find in computer programs, and yes as we find encoded in DNA, is found to be a subset of ‘transcendent’ quantum information by the following method:,,,
,,,And, to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s, here is the empirical confirmation that quantum information is ‘conserved’;,,,
The implication of all this is simply overwhelming;
Music:
Correction- Darwinism was stillborn…
Of note:
also of interest from the preceding paper, on page 21, is a simplified list of ‘epigentic’ information flow in the cell that directly contradicts what was expected from the central dogma (Genetic Reductionism/modern synthesis model) of neo-Darwinism.
If the preceding finding of ‘non-local’ quantum information, on a massive scale in molecular biology, was not enough to convince some people that there is much, much, more going on in life than merely particles in motion, here is an inspirational poem, to celebrate the first day of autumn, that, at least for me, points to much deeper purpose being in life than the zero sum purpose for life that atheists claim is all the purpose there really is for life;
Autumn Leaf’s Laughter – Inspirational Poem
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4181846/