Dads Pass On More Than Genetics In Their Sperm (smithsonianmag.com) 108
According to two complementary studies, sperm change their cargo as they travel the reproductive tract, which can have consequences on the viability of future offspring. Smithsonian reports: The legacy of a dad's behavior can even live on in his child if his epigenetic elements enter an embryo. For instance, mice born to fathers that experience stress can inherit the behavioral consequences of traumatic memories. Additionally, mouse dads with less-than-desirable diets can pass a wonky metabolism onto their kids. Upasna Sharma and Colin Conine, both working under Oliver Rando, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, were some of the researchers to report such findings in 2016. In their work, Sharma and Conine noted that, in mice, while immature testicular sperm contain DNA identical to that of mature sperm, immature sperm relay different epigenetic information. It turns out that sperm small RNAs undergo post-testes turnover, picking up intel on the father's physical health (or lack thereof) after they're manufactured, but before they exit the body. However, the exact pit stop at which these additional small RNAs hitch a ride remained unknown.
To solve the mystery, Sharma, who led the first of the two new studies, decided to track the composition of small RNAs within mouse sperm as they fled the testes and cruised through the epididymis. She and her colleagues isolated sperm of several different ages from mice, including those about to emerge from the testes, those entering the early part of the epididymis and those in the late part of the epididymis. Sharma was surprised to find that many small RNAs seemed to be discarded or destroyed upon entering the early epididymis; then, the newly vacated sperm reacquired epigenetic intel that reflected the father's state of being, boasting a full set by the time they left the late epididymis. There was only one possible source for the small RNA reacquisition: the cells of the epididymis -- which meant that cells outside of the sperm were transmitting information into future generations. [...] Colin Conine, who led the second of the two new studies, next tested if using immature sperm would have noticeable effects on the offspring of mice. He and his colleagues extracted sperm from the testes, early epididymis and late epididymis and injected them into eggs. All three types of sperm were able to fertilize eggs. However, when Conine transferred the resulting embryos into mouse surrogates, none derived from early epididymal sperm -- the intermediate stage devoid of most small RNAs -- implanted in the uterus. The least and most mature sperm of the bunch were winners -- but somehow, those in the middle were burning out, even though all their genes were intact. The only other explanation was that the defect was temporary. If this was the case, then perhaps, if fed the right small RNAs, the early epididymal sperm could be rescued.
To solve the mystery, Sharma, who led the first of the two new studies, decided to track the composition of small RNAs within mouse sperm as they fled the testes and cruised through the epididymis. She and her colleagues isolated sperm of several different ages from mice, including those about to emerge from the testes, those entering the early part of the epididymis and those in the late part of the epididymis. Sharma was surprised to find that many small RNAs seemed to be discarded or destroyed upon entering the early epididymis; then, the newly vacated sperm reacquired epigenetic intel that reflected the father's state of being, boasting a full set by the time they left the late epididymis. There was only one possible source for the small RNA reacquisition: the cells of the epididymis -- which meant that cells outside of the sperm were transmitting information into future generations. [...] Colin Conine, who led the second of the two new studies, next tested if using immature sperm would have noticeable effects on the offspring of mice. He and his colleagues extracted sperm from the testes, early epididymis and late epididymis and injected them into eggs. All three types of sperm were able to fertilize eggs. However, when Conine transferred the resulting embryos into mouse surrogates, none derived from early epididymal sperm -- the intermediate stage devoid of most small RNAs -- implanted in the uterus. The least and most mature sperm of the bunch were winners -- but somehow, those in the middle were burning out, even though all their genes were intact. The only other explanation was that the defect was temporary. If this was the case, then perhaps, if fed the right small RNAs, the early epididymal sperm could be rescued.
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Maybe, you should not have forwarded that to your female colleagues with the note: "I am very fit and in good mood today!"
I've often wondered about this (Score:3, Interesting)
Those that claim to have lived past lives, I've often though those were memories coded in our genetic material, passed on to try to help the survival of the species. Now recalling that you are a person from some bygone era isn't necessarily helping but I think it is a side effect of the innate instincts that are passed on from generation to generation in a lot of species.
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Those that claim to have lived past lives, I've often though those were memories coded in our genetic material, passed on to try to help the survival of the species. Now recalling that you are a person from some bygone era isn't necessarily helping but I think it is a side effect of the innate instincts that are passed on from generation to generation in a lot of species.
Genetic memories are not actual memories.. I've understood that they're more like stress markers.. As in 'this guy experienced prolonged uncertainty and famine in his life'
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But also, the part of your brain that can imagine what something is like? It isn't actually experiencing whatever you're imagining.
So you don't need them to be "real memories" to result in real perceptions about the past. They won't be literally true, they're just how your brain makes sense of and simulates the information that your ancestor experienced prolonged uncertainty and famine. But that's actually a lot to go on when the brain is assembling a simulation!
Interestingly, the "real memories" aren't rea
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Trying to figure out why several posts from today are gone. No, it wasn't my intention to claim as such. I believe that people take these "memories" that aren't actually memories, and build something around them. I've believed that behavior and instinct are imprinted "memories".
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This [wikipedia.org] have got nothing to do with superstition. Don't try to justify crazy shit with pseudo-blabbering.
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Right, but if it that inherited genetic difference causes someone to react more strongly to certain types of emotional situations, they may try to rationalize why they are different based on delusional theories like superstition.
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I wasn't trying to, my phrasing may have been inelegant but I've often thought that our "instinct" and behavior based off it it was from using the "memories" coded in to our genetics. You can go fuck yourself though.
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Those that claim to have lived past lives, I've often though those were memories coded in our genetic material, passed on to try to help the survival of the species.
Or maybe they're just lying charlatans?
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If you believe that you used to be Napoleon and you announce that, you're not a liar. You're just deluded.
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Oh, there are plenty of people who willfully lie about things like this. Prime example: The boy who claimed to see heaven and came back lied about it. [nypost.com]
I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention,” Malarkey admitted.
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You do realize that the New York Post, like the Washington Post, is a tabloid, right?
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Nope, I'm a Distributist, not a capitalist.
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Fine. Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/enterta... [foxnews.com]
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Which I also consider to be a tabloid (along with all the rest of the so called "24 hour news" stations that report a bunch of useless uninformed opinions instead of actual facts). Fox, CNN, MSNBC, they're all crap.
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Just fuck off. None of those websites are making anything uo:
Lifeway issued a statement saying stores will be pulling the remaining copies of the book from stores.
“LifeWay was informed this week that Alex Malarkey has retracted his testimony about visiting heaven as told in the book “The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven.” Therefore, we are returning to the publisher the few copies we have in our stores.”
https://wgntv.com/2015/01/16/b... [wgntv.com]
Thursday evening, Todd Starowitz, public relations director of Tyndale House, told The Washington Post: “Tyndale has decided to take the book and related ancillary products out of print.”
On Friday afternoon, Tyndale released this statement: “We are saddened to learn that Alex Malarkey, co-author of ‘The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven,’ is now saying that he made up the story of dying and going to heaven. Given this information, we are taking the book out of print.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]
And direct from the publisher's website:
Since 2010, Tyndale House Publishers has been the publisher of The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven—the story of Alex Malarkey, a six-year-old boy who was in a horrific auto accident that left him in a coma for two months. When he awoke from the coma, he related to his parents that angels had taken him to the gates of heaven. Tyndale has been saddened to hear that Alex is now saying that he made up the story of dying and going to heaven. This was the first time Tyndale had been told that Alex fabricated the story. We were alerted to his public statement on January 14, 2015, and have since confirmed Alex’s retraction with his father, Kevin Malarkey.
https://www.tyndale.com/news/t... [tyndale.com]
Now please tell me how quotes directly from the book's publisher are now fake, too.
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Nope, those are all fake news too. I'll give you a hint- if you don't have to pay to read it, it's fake and only exists to draw your eyeballs away from the real news that matters.
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It is owned by Amazon and it publishes rumors.
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*yawn* Weak trolling is weak.
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Look into who owns the Washington Post. It's gone far downhill in the last year or two. But I'm sure, as a anti-Trump genocidal maniac, you like that sort of thing.
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"I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention," Malarkey admitted.
Has there ever been a more perfect name?
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No, I've conjectured that what is called "instinct" in many species, is imprinted "memories" passed on genetically. Take you pious self and go suck your own dick.
Bene Gesserit (Score:3)
So there is something to Frank Herbert's concepts?
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Yes, I get that it wasn't a 100% serious comment. But, there is a lot of potential(for better or worse) in some of the guided human evolution of his universe.
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There are much easier and more plausible explanations. Evidence seems to show that you can find in you mind whatever you go looking for. If you decide to believe it, you will elaborate on the creation. People have found gods, demons, alternate personalities, past lives, and more. Finding something is one thing, believing it is a separate choice...but it's one that many people seem to make.
FWIW, I consider the belief in past lives to be relatively harmless in and of itself, though it can be mixed with ot
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I think that it is fanciful thinking that people had previous lives they remember. I think a lot of what we call "instinct" are "memories" imprinted in our DNA.
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They pass on their jokes (Score:5, Funny)
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I told my kids that my dentist appointment is at tooth hurty... thank you I'll be here all week, try the fish...
Re: They pass on their jokes (Score:2, Funny)
I know a guy who got a penis extension.
Now his house looks stupid.
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"Hey, son, pull my finger!"
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But...when you turn around, those same children imitate and repeat those "embarrassing" jokes to their friends!
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Couldn't you just cut your balls off?
Every morning I wake up,... (Score:5, Funny)
regardless of the path in front of me that day, I am happy that my chosen profession doesn't involve giving tiny hand jobs to mice.
Re:Every morning I wake up,... (Score:5, Funny)
regardless of the path in front of me that day, I am happy that my chosen profession doesn't involve giving tiny hand jobs to mice.
You will never know for sure, until you try it.
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regardless of the path in front of me that day, I am happy that my chosen profession doesn't involve giving tiny hand jobs to mice.
Beerfest, anyone? Just don't accidentally make a batch of monkey-frogs.
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Nope. Does not modify your genetic code but how it is expressed (proteins, RNA, ...). It just says that the initial condition are important i.e. the condition in which the gametes are produced. This is not really a surprise to any biologist. The effect seems to support some Lamarckism but the mechanism are purely Darwinist.
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This research is sexist, homophobic and antitrans (Score:5, Funny)
The research excluded and discriminated against female mice under a wrongful assumption that female mice can't produce sperm.
This cis-normative, vaginaphobic attitude to patriarchal research in male-dominated society is expected but should be criticized as problematic and bigoted.
The social construct which guided the alt-right pseudo-scientists in assuming female mice can't produce sperm should be demolished and a new, more vibrant and happy, idea of fluidity should take its place.
Awww, some SJW can't stand being mocked! (Score:1)
You got downvoted because simply using SJW terms is hilarious.
Anything that easily mocked is brain-damaged.
Re:This research is sexist, homophobic and antitra (Score:4, Insightful)
Today, 30th August 2018. Bbc.com, front page (check it if you don't believe me). The 5 stories that you see immediately are:
1. Elections after Mugabe [photo: woman with a child]
2. Slap video of harassed woman shocks France
3. Why Hunt's gaffe over wife's nationality is so embarrassing
4. Heathcliff and literature's greatest love story are toxic
5. Mansplaining explained in one simple chart
Read them all, I beg you! You will see that no matter what is the subject, even the one about the elections that I would think is rather important for both sexes in Zimbabwe cannot miss to bash ALL men. The one about Heathcliff and mansplaining are soooooo ludicrous that it is not funny anymore. Not even remotely. More like fucking tragedy....
So yhea, your post reads like a classical "exaggerate reality for comic effect" tease....unfortunately you did not exaggerate at all....
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I tried to read the mansplaining one yesterday.
To me the whole article seemed like a lot of "womansplaining".
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We used to have a wonderful gender-free word for this; condescending. And everyone does it from time to time, consciously or not.
But the Western world, the US in particular, can't leave well enough alone and started segregating words and ideas by sex and race (categorizing things is their passion) so now you don't have anything important to say unless you are a condescending woman of colour.
Drops mic and so-forth.
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"We used to have a wonderful gender-free word for this; condescending."
Tru dat. Then we realized that men do this to women at a much higher rate than any other combination, and so we realized that 'condescending' wasn't quite getting the job done.
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What "job" is that? Because just from what you said, you'd be reducing the signal quality even more.
Normally, the job of a word is to mean the same thing that it meant yesterday.
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The one about Heathcliff and mansplaining are soooooo ludicrous that it is not funny anymore. Not even remotely. More like fucking tragedy....
So yhea, your post reads like a classical "exaggerate reality for comic effect" tease....unfortunately you did not exaggerate at all....
The poster was a true Poe. I've read virtually identical work, the only difference was that the other screeds I've read were serious.
The only real clue to differentiate between Poe and Serious Feminist Academic was that it was posted as AC.
Heathcliff - srsly? Takes a special kind of weak to be damaged by that.
Re:This research is sexist, homophobic and antitra (Score:5, Interesting)
I get redirected when I try to read bbc.com but I can check the international version of .co.uk. Seems to me you are being selective.
Top story: High turnout in first post-Mugabe poll (photo of mixed line of voters)
India strips four million of citizenship (photo of woman)
Germany gripped by #MeToo racism debate* (photo of man)
Trapped hiker descend quake volcano
Deadly California wildfire growing
Foreign cyclists killed in Tajik 'attack'
Video sidebar:
Georgia's rave revolution (photo of mixed ravers)
Evidence of torture in Russian prison (photo of two men)
Nailing it: Art right on your fingertips (photo of female hand)
A Nicaraguan spring? (photo of male doll)
Ahed Tamimi release from prison (photo of her)
Weaving a livelihood in Kenya (photo of woman)
* This is a story about racism, not sexism.
Seems like coverage a wide range of news with photos appropriate to the story. And this is a year where the BBC is supposed to be making a conscious effort to cover more women's stories. Seems like they got the balance about right.
Don't see any man hating in there, but if it exists provide a link and I'll happily report this misuse of my licence fee and demand an explanation.
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Seems like coverage a wide range of news with photos appropriate to the story.
Every time I see the news there is something about Trump. I'm over it. I'm counting the days to 2024 when I never have to hear about that clown ever again...
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That's just the front page of a television network.
You might have intended instead to read the news section, click on "news" and that will change about half the words on the page.
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You win the Internet today.
Mice with poor diets (Score:1)
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So, I was not aware that all the mice dads were in the drive-thru at McDonald's and ordering Domino's while playing Nintendo on the couch. What news that is!
Men are all like that.
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If that helps you feel better about yourself.. sure.. okay?
Fast Evolution (Score:3, Interesting)
There is a theory of fast evolution that says 'stress' can cause more rapid 'random assortments'. It says that, essentially, in times of great duress evolution operates more rapidly and diversification seems to increase in the species that is being stressed. It could be that this is the mechanism for that part of evolutionary theory.
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I can't track down why I believe this, but I assert:
Sorry, but Darwin did not "believe" in blended evolution, he worried about it. He knew that blended inheritance would make his theory more difficult to support, and knew examples that seemed to show its validity. But he didn't really believe in it. He did give a lot of thought as to how he would support his theory if it were correct. And he had next to no idea of the mechanism of inheritance.
If Mendel thought Darwin believed in blending inheritance, th
Incorrect science reporting (Score:5, Interesting)
The notion that traits are passed through the mechanisms mentioned in the studies is not at all supported by the studies. Phrases like "state of being" are not precise and are meaningless as traits are concerned and indicate to me that science writers have spliced their misunderstanding on these studies. Both studies only address fertility directly. While one may surmise that small RNAs may do many things, these studies do not show that. They only show that small RNAs can vary as sperm travels through the male reproductive tract and that this can affect fertility. That's it. No nonsense about stressed males passing on their stress or giraffes passing on their try hard stretching of necks or any other unsupported nonsense.
Calling what sperm acquire as they pass through the tract "intel" may have a basis if seen in a neutral fashion but in the context of the unsupported assertion by the writers about fatherly stress and such the use of the word "intel" is highly loaded and unsupported. Of course there is epigenetic "information." There is non nuclear material in sperm. Duh. What is shown in the studies is that this material changes as sperm travel through the male reproductive tract. Nothing about lifestyle choices, stress, Lamarkian crap, Jesus, Voodoo or any other baloney. Just some very interesting studies showing a mechanism affecting sperm in very specific ways with very limited assertions about what this means.
The article mentions possibilities of these studies helping with future fertility understanding. In fact, that is ALL that these studies directly offer. The bizarre "fathers pass traits extragenetically' through sperm is not addressed in the studies at all and are just bad science reporting. If the researchers asserted such things then their studies did nothing to support such assertions.
The 2016 study DOES show the possibility that small RNA provided by sperm may cause differences in phenotype metabolic rate in embryos. But this is not the same as showing that a trait will be passed to to birthed or mature creature(mouse). Having some RNA bits affect some gene expression when there aren't many cells is completely different than having this sperm RNA continue to have lasting effects. That would require a great deal more assertion and support than the 2016 study shows.
So the provocative parts of the reporting were actually only possibly applicable for a two year old study and not actually supported AT ALL by that two year old study. And the provocative parts of the reporting were not supported or even addressed by the two studies mentioned as being current.
Crap science reporting. Somebody getting drunk at a bar and asking some drunk assistant what the studies mean could result in a tide of speculation, but none of the Lamarkian nonsense is supported at all. It MAY be possible, but finding out if it actually IS will require work that has not been reported in the article.
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Crap science reporting, yes. And possibly scientists who interview poorly.
OTOH, the epigenetic modification of the offspring of fathers who were stressed in well defined ways being modified in certain particular respects is well supported. Different cases yield different particulars. So this report is only a potential explanation for an already known result. Requiring them to prove the result is unreasonable, as it's been previously proven.
It would, indeed, be interesting to know what particular stresse
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You remind of the assholes who insist that it is improper to describe chimpanzees as looking at something, instead you can only accept the data if they're described as "orienting their faces towards" the thing.
It is just fake pedanticism that invokes complaints without substance.
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I think you're being too hopeful about this as an explanation. Many epigenetic changes are not adaptive, and many others are only arguably adaptive. E.g., what benefit do you ascribe to the kink that some cats get in the tip of their tail from epigenetic modifications? I understand that the stress is the lack of some particular vitamin (or proteing? Can't quite remember.), but it doesn't seem to confer any adaptive advantage, and arguably a slight disadvantage.
I suspect that the major part of the mechan
Memory code (Score:2)
There is a memory code waiting to be discovered, much like the genetic code. The idea that long term memory is recorded in synapses is already crumbling, it appears instead that the synapses are under the control of RNA within the cell, which invites the question: how does memory map to the four letter genetic code?
It is obvious that a few billion nucleotides in the human genome is far too little to encode the innate abilities we are born with. Think of it in terms of game model assets: how detailed a world
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Think of it in terms of game model assets:
No. Never do this.
This class of idiocy should warn you that you're at the Dunning-Kruger peak.
It is unknown because it is unknown, it isn't unknown because it is like video games and so everybody else doesn't know, but you're going to explain it to us.
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I doubt that anyone can explain anything to you, your farted out your post without even reading what you replied to. You saw "video game" and you reacted, much like a toddler. The video game assets reference is merely to give a sense of scale for those who don't have a well defined intuition for how much information you can express in a given number of bits. You clearly lack that intuition and more. Everybody who reads your post will be more stupid than before they read it, nice work.
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It doesn't give an accurate sense of scale, it shows a lack of understanding of both scale, and context.
It shows a complete lack of comprehension about the nature of computers, and the nature of biology.
Everybody knows the old model of memory was wrong, that doesn't imply that your personal understanding is better . These are known unknowns. Things you do not understand; or anybody else. But, you're going to explain them by simplifying them down to fucking video games?!
All we learned is that you like f
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What an asshole. OK, tell us how many byte equivalents the human genome stores. Let's see your flacid mind attempt to go to work, this will be amusing. Safe to say, your mother didn't bequeath you anything between the ears other than compulsion to insult and scant talent for doing it.
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