The Epigenetic Inheritance Hypothesis

Abstract

At the beginning of the 19th century, long before the work of Charles Darwin (1809–1882), whose theory of evolution (slow; “The Origin of Species” 1859) by natural selection has been accepted for over a century, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829) suggested that species vary and introduced the concept of evolution. These two scientists played an important role in the discovery of the mechanisms of evolution. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck seems to be the real founder of the theory of evolution of living beings: this French naturalist first stated that life could appear at any moment, as a result of spontaneous generation from inanimate sources. He then proposed that primitive organisms (which he called infusoria) form themselves into increasingly complex organisms. According to Lamarck, there are two reasons why species evolve towards more and more sophisticated forms: the spontaneous tendency of living material to move towards perfection and, secondly, the effect of the environment. Adaptation to the environment modifies an organism’s needs, creating new habits that in turn lead to changes in the organism. Thus, according to Lamarck, the use or lack of use of an organ leads to the development or degeneration of that organ. Based on this theory, Lamarck stated that the characteristics acquired by a generation are transmitted, via heredity, to the following generations.KeywordsImprint GeneTransgenerational EffectNeonatal DiabetesEpigenetic InheritanceMonoallelic ExpressionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.