Description
Darwin’s Pangenesis and Its Rediscovery Part A highlights the findings of Darwin's Pangenesis, an expanded cell theory and unified theory of heredity and variation that strengthened his theory of evolution and explained many phenomena of life. Now, new advances and the discovery of circulating cell-free DNA, mobile RNAs, prions and extracellular vesicles are providing new breakthroughs, thus increasing evidence on the inheritance of acquired characters, graft hybridization, and many other phenomena that Pangenesis suggests. Sections of note in this volume include the rationale, criticisms, influence and recent molecular evidence of Darwin's Pangenesis, as well as its relation to the inheritance of acquired characters, which is often included under the blanket term "transgenerational epigenetic inheritance."
- Presents a comprehensive approach to Darwin’s Pangenesis, which is so little understood that few have recognized its far-reaching importance, but seems today surprisingly modern
- Links Darwin's hypothetical gemmules with circulating cell-free DNA, mobile RNAs, prions and extracellular vesicles, shedding new light on an old theory
- Includes section on Darwin's Pangenesis in relation to the Lamarckian inheritance of acquired characters, a central debate in the history of genetics
Chapter
One - Darwin's Pangenesis: A Theory of Everything?
1. THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES: AN INCOMPLETE EXPLANATION OF EVOLUTION
2. THE VARIATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS UNDER DOMESTICATION: DARWIN'S LEGACY TO GENETICS
2.1 The Variation: Darwin's “Big Book”
2.2 The Variation: A Valuable Storehouse of Facts and Observations
2.3 Darwin: A Pioneer of Genetics?
3. PANGENESIS AS AN EXPANDED CELL THEORY
3.1 Cell Theory Before Darwin
3.2 Pangenesis as the Third Version of the Cell Theory
3.3 Rethinking the Cell Theory
4. PANGENESIS AS A UNIFIED THEORY OF HEREDITY, VARIATION, DEVELOPMENT AND REPRODUCTION
4.1 Genetical Theory Before Darwin
4.2 The Facts That Pangenesis Was Designed to Explain
4.3 Darwin's Confidence in Pangenesis
5. DARWIN'S PANGENESIS: A SLEEPING BEAUTY?
Two - The Criticisms of Pangenesis: The Years of Controversy
1. DARWIN'S PANGENESIS: A BRILLIANT BLUNDER?
2. GALTON'S FAILURE TO TEST PANGENESIS BY BLOOD TRANSFUSION
2.1 Galton's Blood Transfusion Experiment
2.2 Darwin's Defence in Nature and Galton's Response
2.3 What if Galton Had Studied Poultry?
2.4 Was Galton's Conclusion Reliable?
3. THE PROBLEM OF THE INHERITANCE OF ACQUIRED CHARACTERS
3.1 Weismann's Experiment on Docking the Tails of Mice
3.2 Does Weismann's Experiment Constitute a Denial of Pangenesis?
3.3 Kammerer's Midwife Toad
3.4 Lysenko's Converted Wheat
4. OTHER DOUBTFUL PHENOMENA THAT PANGENESIS SUPPOSEDLY EXPLAINS
5. LACK OF DIRECT EVIDENCE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GEMMULES
Three - The Influence of Darwin's Pangenesis on Later Theories
1. GALTON'S “A THEORY OF HEREDITY” AND “NATURAL INHERITANCE”
1.1 Darwin's Influence on Galton
1.2 Galton's “A Theory of Heredity”
1.3 Galton's “Natural Inheritance”
2. WEISMANN'S THEORY OF “CONTINUITY OF THE GERM-PLASM”
2.1 Weismann's Comments on Darwin's Pangenesis
2.2 Weismann's Theory of “Continuity of the Germ-Plasm”
2.3 A Comparison of Darwin's and Weismann's Theory
3. DE VRIES' “INTRACELLULAR PANGENESIS” AND “THE MUTATION THEORY”
3.1 Darwin's Influence on de Vries
3.2 de Vries' “Intracellular Pangenesis”
3.3 de Vries' “The Mutation Theory”
4. BROOKS' “THE LAW OF HEREDITY”
5. ROSS'S GRAFT THEORY OF DISEASES
6. PERIGENESIS, SYMBIOGENESIS AND OTHER THEORIES
7. A COMPARISON BETWEEN DARWIN'S PANGENESIS AND OTHER THEORIES
Four - In Search of Darwin's Imaginary Gemmules
1. THE TERM “GENE” EVOLVED FROM DARWIN'S “GEMMULE”
2. MORGAN'S THEORY OF THE GENE AND MCCLINTOCK'S JUMPING GENES
2.1 Morgan's Theory of the Gene
2.2 McClintock's Discovery of Jumping Genes
2.3 A Comparison of Darwin's Gemmule With Different Gene Concepts
3. THE DISCOVERY OF CIRCULATING NUCLEIC ACIDS
3.1 Miescher's Discovery of Nucleic Acids
3.2 Mandel and Metais' Discovery of Circulating Nucleic Acids
4. THE DISCOVERY OF PRIONS
5. THE DISCOVERY OF EXTRACELLULAR VESICLES
Five - Darwin's Pangenesis and the Lamarckian Inheritance of Acquired Characters
1. DARWIN'S BELIEF IN THE INHERITANCE OF ACQUIRED CHARACTERS
2. GROWING EVIDENCE FOR THE INHERITANCE OF ACQUIRED CHARACTERS
2.1 Inheritance of Food and Fertilizer Effects
2.2 Inheritance of Acquired Habit
2.3 Inheritance of Acquired Immunity
2.4 Inheritance of Characters Induced by Temperature and Light
2.5 Inheritance of Characters Induced by Chemicals and Drugs
2.6 Inheritance of Age Effects
2.7 Early Stages of Development: Critical Periods in Acquired Inheritance?
3. DARWIN'S PANGENESIS AND ENVIRONMENTALLY INDUCED DNA CHANGES
4. DARWIN'S PANGENESIS AND RNA-MEDIATED INHERITANCE
5. DARWIN'S PANGENESIS AND HORIZONTAL GENE TRANSFER
Darwin’s Pangenesis and Its Rediscovery Part A
( Volume 101 )
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