Inherited Learning? It Happens, but How Is Uncertain

The major outstanding question is not whether these [epigenetic inheritance] effects are happening, but what are the mechanisms by which these changes are happening, wrote Nicholas Burton, an epigenetics researcher at the University of Cambridge, in an email. There is certainly still spirited debate on this topic and I suspect this debate will continue for awhile yet. It will be very exciting to see what comes of it.

The evolutionary why for epigenetic inheritance is also an area of active investigation because it s paradoxical. If learned adaptive behaviors can be passed on to the next generation, that would seem to eliminate the necessity for certain standard evolved changes to the genome. On the other hand, if epigenetically transmitted traits are adaptive, why not hardwire them into the genome so that they can be inherited more stably?

via getpocket.com