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    What is pangenesis?

    Question #106146. Asked by author. (Jun 07 09 6:22 PM)


    star_gazer

    		A theory of heredity proposed by Charles Darwin in which gemmules containing hereditary information from every part of the body coalesce in the gonads and are incorporated into the reproductive cells.

    http://www.answers.com/topic/pangenesis

    Jun 07 09, 6:42 PM
    zbeckabee

    		Pangenesis was Charles Darwin's hypothetical mechanism for heredity. He presented this 'provisional hypothesis' in his 1868 work The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication and felt that it brought 'together a multitude of facts which are at present left disconnected by any efficient cause'. The etymology of the word comes from the Greek words pan (a prefix meaning "whole", "encompassing") and genesis (birth) or genos (origin).

    Pangenesis holds that body cells shed gemmules, which collect in the reproductive organs prior to fertilization. Thus every cell in the body has a 'vote' in the constitution of the offspring. Atavisms arise due to the awaking of long-dormant gemmules, while limbs regenerate due to the activation of gemmules from the missing limb.

    Pangenesis itself is now seen as deeply flawed and not supported by observation.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangenesis


    Jun 07 09, 7:15 PM

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