# The Ghost in Your Genes



## HemlockStud (Apr 26, 2009)

Has anyone watched this video? I found it mind blowing and to think of how we are effected from previous generations! Also how it can play into mouse breeding and how we care for those mice, feed them, and expose them to certain things can in turn switch certain genes on/off then be passed down that way!


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## Wight Isle Stud (May 19, 2010)

just watched it at length, and went over bits that I lost concentration on. very very interesting. New discoveries always remind me of how little we do know. I will ponder on this programme and see what my brain comes up with. I am being dragged by my grey matter towards genetic mutations, one in 25,000 in mice and i Wonder if the switching on and off of genes in relation to previous enviromental influences could be the forerunner to the body/mouse producing a new mutation in order to cope with negative enviromental factors. It may be that the scientists have now been able to write down what Darwin saw with his eyes.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Epigenetics is a fascinating area that's so deep and so wide; it blows the whole field wide open. I'm very interested in the inferences relating to the tricolor phenomenon, as I believe them to be the results of epigenetics in the form of added material placed where epigenetic material normally appears. The thought that conditions under which parents are bred, diet, disease, and so on, can cause changes in the genes that are passed on to the very next generation and clearly observed redeems poor old LaMarck. One example would be the appearance of yellow offspring from agoutis exposed to certain chemicals

Another area that is interesting is the redundancy they are finding in genetic material that before was considered to be noncoded junk that was useless except as 'spacers' between areas that have long been identified as working genes are apparently not what they seem in some cases.


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## HemlockStud (Apr 26, 2009)

http://www.time.com/time/health/article ... -1,00.html

I just found and read through this article, my interest is really peaked now.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

That was a great article! It was worth re-reading.

I'm trying to improve my understanding of genetics currently; there's so much detail in journal articles, and I find I need to read at a snail's pace and refer often to references in order to understand some of the terminology. I'm currently reading Fincham's text Principles of Genetics and Genetic Analysis. I can't afford the newer version that has the last chapter, which was what I really wanted to read, but the rest is plenty to chew on. I was happy to find that the first third of the book was mostly review for what I had had retained from previous studies....I'm looking now for a copy at the University of Minnesota Library that has the last eight or nine pages of newer material, including much more info on translocation of genes onto the c locus, the one that is responsible for all the c dilutions, and where the tricolor and splashed phenomena occur.

Yes, I've been ridiculed for not accepting that the whole tricolor phenomenon is based on simple Mendelian principles. I've developed a thicker and thicker skin as I find more and more reasons to think as I do. The tris may not be from the very first of Cattenach's experiments, but I don't see how anyone could mistake what happens as simple Mendelian inheritance.

This may not be on topic, but it's somewhat of an obsession for me. I believe that in taking part of an X chromosome that contains genes from the c AND the p locus, they also have taken, I believe, a partial shell of the genetic identity as it would appear in an egg or sperm, thus creating an XXY without there being an actual entire extra set of genes. I'm also puzzling over the concept of X inactivation....that's the newest part....I don't know how I missed it before...it's something common in ALL mammals, where any set that includes two X sets has an inactivation of one of them, after independent assortment has lined up which parts will be used from each X....I think that's how it works...I'm learning. It's good to learn new things when you get to be 60 years old; keeps the brain nimble and prevents losing facility for understanding new things.


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## DomLangowski (Oct 2, 2008)

Just watched the video, this is fascinating (spelling) I really enjoy watching this kind of stuff 

Thanks OP


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