Genome complexity: importance of epigenetics (Introduction)

by dhw, Saturday, March 28, 2015, 17:00 (3315 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Opinion of Denis Noble:- http://www.dpag.ox.ac.uk/team/group-leaders/denis-noble
 
 
 Noble D.
 
"The 'Modern Synthesis' (Neo-Darwinism) is a mid-20th century gene-centric view of evolution, based on random mutations accumulating to produce gradual change through natural selection. Any role of physiological function in influencing genetic inheritance was excluded. The organism became a mere carrier of the real objects of selection, its genes. We now know that genetic change is far from random and often not gradual. Molecular genetics and genome sequencing have deconstructed this unnecessarily restrictive view of evolution in a way that reintroduces physiological function and interactions with the environment as factors influencing the speed and nature of inherited change. Acquired characteristics can be inherited, and in a few but growing number of cases that inheritance has now been shown to be robust for many generations. The 21st century can look forward to a new synthesis that will reintegrate physiology with evolutionary biology. "-Thank you for this. Good to see random mutations on the way out. Physiological functions and interactions with the environment, plus the inheritance of acquired characteristics, suggest to me that evolutionists are heading towards the truly amazing conclusion that there is an autonomous inventive mechanism at work, which enables individual organisms not only to adapt but also to innovate. Haven't we heard that before somewhere?