Epigenetics is not inheritance of adaptive, acquired characteristics

By Charles Brown Epigenetics is not inheritance of adaptive , acquired characteristics; it's not LaMarkian. It is modification of an inheritance. The genes are an inheritance. Epigenetics modifies a gene, modifies its expression, modifies an inheritance. In the famous fictional hypothetical of LaMark, a giraffe acquires a long neck by stretching it to reach food high up , solving an adaptive problem; then the stretched neck , an acquired characteristic, is inherited by the giraffe's offspring . LaMarck's is natural selection theory . The stretched neck is selected for by the adaptive problem of food high up . In epigenetics, there is no adaptive problem solved by the gene suppression/expression. Furthermore, The modified gene is not inherited, nor is the phenotype of the modified gene inherited by the next generation. So, there is no inheritance of acquired characteristics. Biology text books declare that the genetic mutations that create phenotypes that solve an adaptive problem are random . What is meant by random here ? It is that the mutations are not caused by the adaptive problem they solve; the mutations arise _randomly_ relative to the adaptive problem they solve ; they arise coincidently with the problem they solve . In the discussions of epigenetics, there is no discussion of the epigenetic changes solving any adaptive problem or raising the fitness of the organism in which they occur. But if they happen to solve some adaptive problem , they still arise _randomly_ relative to that problem . The epigenetics change is not caused by the adaptive problem that it solves , as the giraffe neck stretching is caused by the adaptive problem of food being too high up. So, the epigenetic changes to phenotypes are the same as genetic mutation changes to phenotypes. Epigenetics are NOT a basis for a LaMarckian inheritance of acquired characteristics anymore than genetic mutations are . And genetic mutations are not LaMarckian. Furthermore, epigenetic markers are determined by genes ; they are not acquired characteristics; they are inherited characteristics; to the extent the epigenetics markers are inherited , they are inherited characteristics, not acquired characteristics. So, epigenetic changes cannot be the basis of inheritance of _acquired_ characteristics. On Jan 30, 2022, at 8:58 PM, Charles Brown wrote:  Inheritance of acquired characteristics/ LaMarkian fictional hypothesis of how the giraffe got a long neck is a natural selection theory . Epigenetics is not a theory of natural selection. LaMark’s giraffe stretches it’s neck to adapt to the problem in its environment of food being too high up. Long neck giraffes are thereby selected for over short neck giraffes . Epigenetic effects are not selected for, so they can’t be LaMarkian as they are not part of a selection theory . Furthermore, the giraffe stretches its neck in response to the problem it solves ; the adaptive problem causes its own solution. Epigenetic changes are not caused by an _adaptive problem-; so they are not LaMarkian on a second count . Finally, they are not inherited by the third generation, because by definition epigenetic effects do not change the underlying genetic structure. That’s three reasons that Epigenetic are not LaMarckian . They are not inherited , so they are not _inheritance_ of acquired characteristics. http://take10charles.blogspot.com/2022/02/inheritance-of-adaptive-acquired.html On Jan 30, 2022, at 6:19 PM, Jim Farmelant wrote:  Back in February of last year, we at Greater Boston Humanists had Professor Loren Graham speak on Lysenko in contemporary Russia.Aare Contemporary Russian advocates of Lysenkoism attempt to use recent findings in epigenetics to support Lysenkoan views of evolution. Professor Graham is quite familiar with Lysenko, Back in the seventies he interviewed Lysenko, and in his own words, he found Lysenko to be a rather scary figure. By the time that he was interviwed by Graham, Lysenko was stripped of most of the power and influence that he had under both Stalin and Khrushchev. During Stalin's day, Lysenko could, and did, have scientists who disagreed with him sent to labor camps, where many of them died. Most famously, the geneticist Nikolai Vavilov. https://www.meetup.com/GreaterBostonHumanists/events/276153581/?fbclid=IwAR2PF9AbjeKoxbiGcEmGPcWr_UnJMoZftMRyLpxZCffrwT3MHjRR_0slgJU https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_synthesis_(20th_century)#Towards_a_replacement_synthesis numerous theorists had pointed out that the disciplines of embryological developmental theory, morphology, and ecology had been omitted. They noted that all such arguments amounted to a continuing desire to replace the modern synthesis with one that united "all biological fields of research related to evolution, adaptation, and diversity in a single theoretical framework."[104] They observed further that there are two groups of challenges to the way the modern synthesis viewed inheritance. The first is that other modes such as epigenetic inheritance, phenotypic plasticity, the Baldwin effect, and the maternal effect allow new characteristics to arise and be passed on and for the genes to catch up with the new adaptations later. The second is that all such mechanisms are part, not of an inheritance system, but a developmental system: the fundamen