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Epigenetic Mutations

Submitted by mmaliha on Fri, 09/21/2018 - 12:11

Jean Baptiste Lamarck was a French naturalist. He was the first to research invertebrate animals, and an early advocate for the idea of evolution. He had a discredited theory that evolution occurs when parent organisms pass on acquired traits to their offsprings. Now, we widely believe in Darwin's theory that evolution occurs because of natural selection.

However, new research findings suggest that Lamarck's theory might have some truth to it. We now know that hereditary epigenetic changes violate Mendelian principles. Epigenetic changes occur by transcriptional modifications: due to alterations on histone tail charges, chromatin binding, X-chromosome inactivations etc.  Although these changes pass on from mother to daughter cells, the modifications are typically erased in the germ cells. However, accumulating evidence suggests the opposite: passing on of epimutations. So far, the phenomenon has been spotted in plants, fruit flies and yeast.

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Comments

I would reccomend outlining Lamarck's theory in the first paragraph so that the reader has an understanding of what he was proposing at the begining of the reading . 

Maybe try and elaborate on the differences between Lamarack's theories and Darwin's theories? Just some food for thought. 

I think the word "widely" at the end of the first part of the paragraph might be unnecessary and I think that "findings" at the beginning of the second part of the paragraph is unnecessary. And I think that their should be a comma before "etc."