[lbo-talk] the epigenenome

Chuck Grimes cgrimes at rawbw.com
Wed May 13 18:36:44 PDT 2009


Well, a village is a pretty small sample group. Chris Doss

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Not if you have more than a hundred fifty years of records on individual families including birth and deaths, harvest yields, and other records to follow on a self-sustaining group with few outside contacts. It sets up a laboratory model.

Anyway read through the next post. It makes the case in much more detail and explicitly outlines why consideration of epigenetic phenomenon are about to change Modern Synthesis, the name for current evolutionary theory.

Gould mounted a serious challenge with his punctuated equilibrium hypothesis that lead to considering that species may not be the only domain level undergoing natural selection, that higher orders may be involved. Epigenetic phenomenon mount an even greater challenge from within species, particularly the internal differentiation process.

The depth of its importance comes from the fact that natural selection only works through phenotypes. If that's all there is, then how do genetic sequences change, how does the genotype change? Influence through epigenenome changes provides one answer.

I might be a fool here, but this is really big and exciting stuff and far less debatable because it has such an elegant molecular basis. We can point to specific biochemical processes and pathways and not just postulate some vague event in the environment as causal factors the `just so' stories that naturalists in the past had to.

Here is a prediction. As the epigenetic systems are investigated to depth, what will happen, will be a far more detailed and specific outline of the subtle environmental systems that evoke these changes.

In the microscopic world, for example in bacteria we already know that species interaction can result in what's called horizontal exchange of genetic material. This means that one bacteria changes the genetic make up of another. The consequence is that bacterial species don't necessarily follow a branching tree of evolution, but more like a combination of tree and web.

Read the article I am going to post and see what you think.

There are many political consequences involved. For example the sociobiology crew is going to have a field day as are the Christians looking for the queer epigenetic syndrome, the American epigenetic syndrome and other such stuff. On the positive side, it will a very good idea to figure out what has turned on our fat epigenetic system. My favorite suspect is high fructose corn syrup. The processed and fast food industry is going to hate this one.

The economic consequences are much greater, since big pharma, medicine, and corporate agriculture are going to go nuts constructing and patenting biochemical regimes that effect the epigenetic systems of humans and our domesticated crops, etc. The childless rich are going to pay big bucks to turn their own infertility back on if possible, etc, etc, etc... And of course the rich are going to look to get cured of their diseases. And there is the rich aging who will start looking for reversing the aging process. Then there are organ transplants, organ growing, and endless other medical applications. Curing autism for example and on and on.

Here is what I think is a consummate irony. Much of the research behind epigenetics came straight out of stem cell research right at the moment George Bush shutdown federal funding. The consequence was that many US groups and labs had to slow down their research programs. We were in a large scale competition with the UK and EU. Once our funding disappeared, the UK took the lead and the field exploded.

CG



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