[newheart]

What they're saying is that during mieosis epigenetic methylation isn't 'erased' completely, and that carrying over old signals from an ancestor (mother/father) can interfere with normal processing of sex related gene function.

That is, it's not part of your genes ~ rather it's just part of an epigenetic signal.

That would seem to provide some support for the "born this way" crowd. Not genetically born that way, but due to the effect of epigenetic signals on the developing fetus. So that raises a lot of questions such as: what caused the epigenetic signal in the first place; how many generations does it go back; can there be screening for the signal the way there is screening for genetic markers.

There might also be the question of whether the epigenetic signals are caused by environmental toxins, or maybe even behaviorally induced by the ancestor.

Interesting study. I certainly don't have the expertise to understand it, but it is certainly worth examining.

[muawiyah]

The discovery of epigenetics erased just about everything we knew and opened up a whole new world of thought.

The latest on Darwinian Evolution, in terms of epigenetics, is that we've found that Lamarckian connection between the genome and the macro-world ~ and it's stranger than we ever imagined it could be.

You'll notice as you get into epigenetics and methylation that just about no one discusses 'evolutionary forces'. That demon demigod is gone from the lexicon. The new one is getting down to molecular formulae!