Inheritance of acquired traits in plants: reinstatement of Lamarck.

Plant Signaling & Behavior
Hiroshi Sano

Abstract

Since Lamarck proposed the idea of inheritance of acquired traits 200 years ago, much has been said for and against it, but the theory was finally declined after the 1930s. Despite of the negative opinions of the majority of geneticists, botanists and plant breeders have long recognized that altered properties during the growth were occasionally transmitted to the offspring. This was also the case with artificially altered properties such as dwarfism, flowering timing and plant stature, which were induced by a non-mutagenic chemical, 5-azacytidine and its derivatives. As these drugs are powerful inhibitors of DNA methylation in vivo, a close correlation between methylation and phenotypic expression was suggested. Subsequent studies showed that rice plants acquired disease resistance upon demethylation of the corresponding resistant gene, and that both resistant trait and hypomethylated status were inherited by the progeny up to nine generations. Whether or not the methylation pattern changes under natural condition was then questioned, and recent studies have indicated that it indeed naturally changes in response to environmental stresses. Whether or not the altered methylation pattern during the vegetative growth is heritable ...Continue Reading

References

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Citations

Jan 3, 2012·Plant Physiology·Ana SlaughterBrigitte Mauch-Mani
Sep 15, 2011·Biochimica Et Biophysica Acta·Clícia GrativolPaulo Cavalcanti Gomes Ferreira
Nov 12, 2015·Biochemistry. Biokhimii︠a︡·Ya I Buryanov
Jun 28, 2015·Bio Systems·Daniel HerediaMáximo Sandín
Feb 12, 2014·Plant Signaling & Behavior·Zoë MigicovskyIgor Kovalchuk
Jul 24, 2013·Physics of Life Reviews·James A Shapiro
May 23, 2014·Frontiers in Plant Science·Rakesh MinochaSubhash C Minocha
Jul 7, 2016·Journal of Experimental Botany·Kiyotoshi Takeno
Sep 28, 2016·Frontiers in Plant Science·Kamala GuptaBhaskar Gupta
Oct 5, 2019·TAG. Theoretical and applied genetics. Theoretische und angewandte Genetik·Hideki NishimuraMasahiko Maekawa
Aug 26, 2019·Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology·Edward J SteeleN Chandra Wickramasinghe

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