In a good high school biology survey course, there will likely be mention of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and usually in the context of 'the inheritance of acquired characteristics' which we are advised is impossible. For example, you can't cut the tail off a dog such that it acquires the characteristic of being a dog without a tail and then expect its progeny will consequently not have tails. That's Lamarckism and we were advised it's wrong. (WIKI: Jean-Baptiste Lamarck)
Researchers discovered it's not quite so simple since they have found a new field of epigenetics for the area of study between genetics and environment. (Science Daily: Cultural differences may leave their mark on DNA)
The study examined DNA methylation -- an "annotation" of DNA that alters gene expression without changing the genomic sequence itself -- in a group of diverse Latino children. Methylation is one type of "epigenetic mark" that previous research has shown can be either inherited or altered by life experience.
- SD
Lamarckism was discredited but he did some important science and that aspect usually isn't covered too much in a survey course.
Gregor Mendel is often credited as the Father of Genetics and he was an Augustinian monk / scientist so I had a general impression he was from far back in history but he actually did his research around 1860 and died in 1884. Lamarck had died in 1825 so he didn't precede Mendel by all that much.
My ol' Dad would have been doing his undergraduate work somewhere around 1940 so Mendel's work was still, to some extent, contemporary. There was that time through to about 1955 when my ol' Dad published on population genetics with computers so maybe regard that as the analog age. The switch to the digital age with the computer processing was another age until the sequencing of the human genome was complete in 2003. Maybe that was the digital age but now it's like genetics launches as if on a Saturn V since there's been an enormous quantity of genomic research taking place since.
That panorama wasn't so clear until just now when I realized Mendel could not have been such an ancient.
Moving beyond the keywords, here are some details of the study.
The researchers identified several hundred differences in methylation associated with either Mexican or Puerto Rican ethnicity, but discovered that only three-quarters of the epigenetic difference between the two ethnic subgroups could be accounted for by differences in the children's genetic ancestry. The rest of the epigenetic differences, the authors suggest, may reflect a biological stamp made by the different experiences, practices, and environmental exposures distinct to the two ethnic subgroups.
- SD
Here's where we get to the tribe.
"These data suggest that the interplay between race and ethnicity as social constructs and genetic ancestry as a biological construct is more complex than we had realized," said Noah Zaitlen, PhD, a UCSF assistant professor of medicine and co-senior author on the new study. "In a medical context both elements may provide valuable information."
- SD
It appears for some mechanism they don't entirely understand the members of the tribe come to resemble each other, at least epigenetically. The study focused on Puerto Rican and Mexican children but the principle should apply to any groups of people which associate closely and that's the Rockhouse idea of a tribe.
Overall, the researchers found that about 76 percent of the effect of ethnicity on DNA methylation could be accounted for by controlling for genetic ancestry, suggesting that nearly a quarter of the effect must be due to other, unknown factors. The researchers found that many of these additional methylation sites corresponded to sites that previous studies had shown to be sensitive to environmental and social factors such as maternal smoking, exposure to diesel exhaust, and psychosocial stress. This led the team to hypothesize that a large fraction of their newly disovered epigenetic markers of ethnicity likely reflect biological signatures of environmental, social, or cultural differences between ethnic subgroups.
- SD
There's more to the article and there are multiple pithy notations to make. You are what you eat gets heavy support but the article shows you also are the people with whom you eat since you probably eat largely the same things. Tribes and cultures usually have huge differences in culinary tastes and that's one of the things which makes them interesting.
Have a ball with your own considerations since you can dance this one all the way around the room.
Researchers discovered it's not quite so simple since they have found a new field of epigenetics for the area of study between genetics and environment. (Science Daily: Cultural differences may leave their mark on DNA)
The study examined DNA methylation -- an "annotation" of DNA that alters gene expression without changing the genomic sequence itself -- in a group of diverse Latino children. Methylation is one type of "epigenetic mark" that previous research has shown can be either inherited or altered by life experience.
- SD
Lamarckism was discredited but he did some important science and that aspect usually isn't covered too much in a survey course.
Gregor Mendel is often credited as the Father of Genetics and he was an Augustinian monk / scientist so I had a general impression he was from far back in history but he actually did his research around 1860 and died in 1884. Lamarck had died in 1825 so he didn't precede Mendel by all that much.
My ol' Dad would have been doing his undergraduate work somewhere around 1940 so Mendel's work was still, to some extent, contemporary. There was that time through to about 1955 when my ol' Dad published on population genetics with computers so maybe regard that as the analog age. The switch to the digital age with the computer processing was another age until the sequencing of the human genome was complete in 2003. Maybe that was the digital age but now it's like genetics launches as if on a Saturn V since there's been an enormous quantity of genomic research taking place since.
That panorama wasn't so clear until just now when I realized Mendel could not have been such an ancient.
Moving beyond the keywords, here are some details of the study.
The researchers identified several hundred differences in methylation associated with either Mexican or Puerto Rican ethnicity, but discovered that only three-quarters of the epigenetic difference between the two ethnic subgroups could be accounted for by differences in the children's genetic ancestry. The rest of the epigenetic differences, the authors suggest, may reflect a biological stamp made by the different experiences, practices, and environmental exposures distinct to the two ethnic subgroups.
- SD
Here's where we get to the tribe.
"These data suggest that the interplay between race and ethnicity as social constructs and genetic ancestry as a biological construct is more complex than we had realized," said Noah Zaitlen, PhD, a UCSF assistant professor of medicine and co-senior author on the new study. "In a medical context both elements may provide valuable information."
- SD
It appears for some mechanism they don't entirely understand the members of the tribe come to resemble each other, at least epigenetically. The study focused on Puerto Rican and Mexican children but the principle should apply to any groups of people which associate closely and that's the Rockhouse idea of a tribe.
Overall, the researchers found that about 76 percent of the effect of ethnicity on DNA methylation could be accounted for by controlling for genetic ancestry, suggesting that nearly a quarter of the effect must be due to other, unknown factors. The researchers found that many of these additional methylation sites corresponded to sites that previous studies had shown to be sensitive to environmental and social factors such as maternal smoking, exposure to diesel exhaust, and psychosocial stress. This led the team to hypothesize that a large fraction of their newly disovered epigenetic markers of ethnicity likely reflect biological signatures of environmental, social, or cultural differences between ethnic subgroups.
- SD
There's more to the article and there are multiple pithy notations to make. You are what you eat gets heavy support but the article shows you also are the people with whom you eat since you probably eat largely the same things. Tribes and cultures usually have huge differences in culinary tastes and that's one of the things which makes them interesting.
Have a ball with your own considerations since you can dance this one all the way around the room.
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