Philip Hunt wrote:
2008/12/3 Richard Loosemore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026845.000-memories-may-be-stored-on-your-dna.html
are saying is that memories can be stored as changes in the DNA inside
neurons?
No. They are saying memories might be stored as changes *on* the DNA.
Imagine a big long DNA molecule. It has little molecules attached to
bits of it, which regulate which genes are and aren't expressed.
That's how a cell knows it's a skin cell, or an eye cell or a liver
cell. Apparently the same mechanism is used in neurons are part of the
mechanism for laying down new memories.
Yes, I know this: I appreciate the difference between tampering with
the gene regulation apparatus and affecting the codons themselves, but
for my money, *any* mechanism that collects synaptic signals (to speak
very broadly) and then walks over to some DNA and does anything
systematic to the DNA, to record the results of those signals, is
storing something on the DNA. There could have been no way to get from
one to the other, but now it appears that there is.
Would it mean that memories (including cultural adaptations) could be passed
from mother to child?
No, for two reasons: (1) the DNA isn't being changed. (2) even if the
DNA was being changed, it isn't in the germ-line.
This is a crucial point: has anyone definitely ruled out the
possibility that state of the gene regulation apparatus could somehow
affect the germ line?
This I am not clear about. When the Mom and Pop DNA really start to get
down and boogie together, do they throw away the scratchpad that
contains all the extra information about the state of the junk DNA, the
methylation endcaps, etc? Or is it still an open question whether some
of that can carry over?
Richard Loosemore
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agi
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