Posted on 11/13/2006 3:06:19 PM PST by blam
You are what your grandmother ate 22:00 13 November 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Roxanne Khamsi
The mice on the left-hand side have active AVY genes, giving them golden fur, while those on the right have silenced AVY genes (Image: Cropley et al/PNAS)
A mother’s diet can change the behaviour of a specific gene for at least two subsequent generations, a new study demonstrates for the first time.
Feeding mice an enriched diet during pregnancy silenced a gene for light fur in their pups. And even though these pups ate a standard, un-enriched diet, the gene remained less active in their subsequent offspring.
The findings could help explain the curious results from recent studies of human populations – including one showing that the grandchildren of well-fed Swedes had a greater risk of diabetes.
The new mouse experiment lends support to the idea that we inherit not only our genes from our parents, but also a set of instructions that tell the genes when to become active. These instructions appear to be passed on through “epigenetic” changes to DNA – genes can be activated or silenced according to the chemical groups that are added onto them.
Gene silencer
David Martin at the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute in California, US, and colleagues used a special strain of genetically identical mice with an overactive version of a gene that influences fur colour. Mice with the AVY version of this gene generally have golden fur.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
There was also a great deal of fried fish, saur kraut and knockwurst, and lots of pie, lemon meringue mostly.
I must be lox and bagels and kugel
OHH and CHICKEN FAT...which does explain alot!
Yes indeed. There's NO such thing as TOO MUCH chicken fat.
~/<;o)
Monica Lewinsky's kids are destined to be great swimmers.
Well, one grandmother died of heart disease and one has Type II diabetes. Ruh roh!
They consumed a George McGovern diet: plenty of hydrogenated oils (margarine was so preferable to butter, you know), corn, white bread, and pasta.
I was hamburgers, especially when I was pregnant.
And truly great LIARS!
why stop at Michurin when Lysenko is just around the corner?
It's all Grandma's Fault!
Blam you are busy these days!
--Some day Lamarck will be rehabilitated, mark my words.--
"Nature, in producing in succession every species of animal, and beginning with the least perfect or simplest to end her work with the most perfect, has gradually complicated their structure."
PUKS. If you haven't read Voinovich, read him.
Wow! I really am my own Grandpa!
Oh. Did I just say that?
My Mother's family is from South Texas, and I'm sure ate a lot of Mexican food. What does that portend for my descendants?
--Some day Lamarck will be rehabilitated, mark my words.--
"The theory that Lamarck published consisted of several components. Underlying the whole was a 'tendency to progression', a principle that Creation is in a constant state of advancement. It was an innate quality of nature that organisms constantly 'improved' by successive generation, too slowly to be perceived but observable in the fossil record. Mankind sat at the top of this chain of progression, having passed through all the previous stages in prehistory."
You misjudge my intentions. I am REALLY interested in biology and evolution. Just because there was a brief moment when Soviet Communists preferred Lamarck over Darwin, should not have any impact on our understanding of evolution.
I gave concrete examples which contradict Jurassic Park paradigm - that DNA is the unidirectional master of life process, modified only by mere chance and winnowed by external selection. I am sure that there will be more discoveries coming that will point toward more complex and intelligent design.
Of course, from the hindsight of two centuries you can find faults in Lamarck, but not smaller than in Darwin. The key ideas of Lamarck in a updated form will be vindicated in my opinion. Just my educated opinion.
I was wondering when you were going to show your I.D.
If it matters to you, I approve.
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