How epigenetics works (Introduction)

by dhw, Monday, January 07, 2013, 19:35 (4339 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Unique metabolic reactions to a particular environmental stress apparently target specific genes for increased rates of transcription and mutation, resulting in higher mutation rates for those genes most likely to solve the problem. -http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23274173-Evolution has solved the delay problem of waiting for a chance serendipitous mutation. Here we see directed mutations! And evolution developed this all by chance! Tongue in cheek.-This whole article seems to me to highlight the intelligence of the genome, but I still wonder to what extent new environments may also account for innovation as well as adaptation. I watched a programme about the Galapogos islands the other day, with their various unique "species", but these were variations of tortoises, albatrosses etc. If epigenetics can also lead to entirely new organs and entirely new organisms through innovative responses to different environments, there will be no need at all for random mutations as the inventive force behind evolutionary progress.