From: RSBrenchley@aol.com
Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2002 13:36:47 EST
To: BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Lamarkianism

> It has been shown that changes in genotype change phenotype and not the
> other way round.
> The gene composition (genotype) will express itself as physical
> characters (phenotype).
> Other factors such as environmental conditions will also shape the
> resulting organism. BUT the final resulting form will not DIRECTLY
> affect the gene components.

It sounds like heresy on the face of it, but couldn't it also be that a
change in cell size will weight the balance in favour of a different
selection of already existing genes? A change in the environment - to a
region with a lot of malaria, for instance - is likely to produce a change in
the human genotype, by selecting for the sickle-cell gene. This gives
resistance to malaria, but a person with two copies of this gene (homozygote)
has a nasty blood disease. There could be something parallel here, but
hopefully without the unfortunate side effect!

Regards,

Robert Brenchley