Is there more to heredity, natural selection, and evolution than genes and DNA

Posted on January 28, 2009 by Simon

Eva Jablonka asks if there is more to heredity, natural selection, and evolution than genes and DNA?:

Growing evidence indicates there is more to heredity than DNA, that heritable non-DNA variations can take place during development, sometimes in response to an organism’s environment. The notion of soft inheritance is returning to reputable scientific inquiry. Moreover, there seem to be cellular mechanisms activated during periods of extreme stress that trigger bursts of genetic and non-genetic heritable variations, inducing rapid evolutionary change. These realizations promise to profoundly alter our view of evolutionary dynamics.

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2 Responses to Is there more to heredity, natural selection, and evolution than genes and DNA

  1. Rachael says:
    February 5, 2009 at 4:30 pm

    Hey Simon, if you haven’t got round to reading Evolution in Four Dimensions (Jablonka and Lamb) it’s worth it… really really good read…

  2. Simon Greenhill says:
    February 6, 2009 at 5:01 pm

    Hi Rachael! Yeah, it’s in my to-read pile (and has been for quite a while I’m afraid). I’ve been a fan of Jablonka and Lamb for quite a while – loved their book on Neo-Lamarckism (not sure I’m convinced but I think it’s definitely a debate that ev. biol. needs to have again).

    –Simon