"Could skin, feather and fur colors have been more the result of epigenetic pre-programming activating after the Flood in animals and after Babel in humans, with those ‘switched-on’ genes then passed on to further generations by conventional genetics (transgenerational epigenetics)?
Could apparently significant differences in different species, otherwise very similar to each other, have been the result of epigenetic switching within the same kind, but in different environments?
During the European winter of 1944, Allied troops were pushing toward Germany. In Nazi-occupied
Holland, Dutch drivers went on strike to further hinder the German war effort. In retaliation, the Germans began a blockade of the Western Netherlands which, together with a severe winter, resulted in a period of catastrophic deprivation and starvation. The population was reduced to a diet of about a third of their needed daily calorie intake, resulting in approximately 20,000 deaths between November 1944 and May 1945 when the blockade was lifted. People were forced to eat grass and tulip bulbs, and were burning furniture for heat in order to stay alive. This period is known as the Dutch Hunger Winter. The iconic actress Audrey Hepburn was a teenager in Holland at the time. The ill health she suffered throughout her life was likely a result of the deprivations of these few months.
Babies who were in the first months of gestation during this period were found to have normal birth
weights, while more likely to suffer from obesity in their later years. Those exposed to starvation in the last months of gestation were found to be under the average weight at birth, and for the rest of their lives. They were less likely than the general population to be obese. Even more startling, these same characteristics seemed to also have passed on to the following generation, the grandchildren of the women starved during those six awful months.
*It was not likely that an environmental change could alter the sequences in their DNA code, which were still going to be the result of the combination of codes from their mother and father.
*So it must have been the way in which genes were expressed which had been altered by the environment, i.e. while the DNA sequence remained the same, certain genes were switched on or off as a result of outside, environmental stimuli. Scientists have identified the insulin-like growth factor II (a protein coded for by the IGF2 gene) as playing an important role in this.
A new discipline was born, the study of epigenetics (over, or above genetics).
Studies on bison bones found in permafrost in a Canadian gold mine indicated that epigenetic changes in the bison population enabled them to adapt rapidly to changes in climate. These are
changes far too rapid for traditional Darwinian models of natural selection to explain. “The bones play a key role in a world-first study, led by University of Adelaide researchers, which analyses special genetic modifications that turn genes on and off, without altering the DNA sequence itself. These ‘epigenetic’ changes can occur rapidly between generations—without requiring the time for standard evolutionary processes.”
Scientists conducting experiments on agouti mice found that by manipulating nutrition they could switch off a certain gene. When the gene is active (‘on’) the mice are normally obese and a yellowish color; by switching the gene off the mice are of a normal, slim appearance, and brown. By feeding a combination of nutrients including vitamin B12 to the mother before mating, the gene was able to be turned off in the babies."
CMI
In the day that God created man... Genesis 5:1
Could apparently significant differences in different species, otherwise very similar to each other, have been the result of epigenetic switching within the same kind, but in different environments?
During the European winter of 1944, Allied troops were pushing toward Germany. In Nazi-occupied
Babies who were in the first months of gestation during this period were found to have normal birth
*It was not likely that an environmental change could alter the sequences in their DNA code, which were still going to be the result of the combination of codes from their mother and father.
*So it must have been the way in which genes were expressed which had been altered by the environment, i.e. while the DNA sequence remained the same, certain genes were switched on or off as a result of outside, environmental stimuli. Scientists have identified the insulin-like growth factor II (a protein coded for by the IGF2 gene) as playing an important role in this.
A new discipline was born, the study of epigenetics (over, or above genetics).
Studies on bison bones found in permafrost in a Canadian gold mine indicated that epigenetic changes in the bison population enabled them to adapt rapidly to changes in climate. These are
Scientists conducting experiments on agouti mice found that by manipulating nutrition they could switch off a certain gene. When the gene is active (‘on’) the mice are normally obese and a yellowish color; by switching the gene off the mice are of a normal, slim appearance, and brown. By feeding a combination of nutrients including vitamin B12 to the mother before mating, the gene was able to be turned off in the babies."
CMI
In the day that God created man... Genesis 5:1