News Item With Implications

[Mike Gilbert]

The news story in the attached link on the surface has nothing to do with poultry.  But a couple of phrases used caught my eye, causing me to consider what they might mean when it comes to raising poultry or any kind of livestock.  Those phrases were/are, "dramatic nutrient shifts that affect gene expression," and "As genes turn on and off, change in the function of cells may occur."    While I have been vaguely aware of these possibilities, I believe they could imply that environment, including nutrition, can have a much greater effect on phenotype than previously thought.   Comments?


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/astronauts-dna-changed-by-time-in-space/ar-BBKdBPT

[Suki]

Yes I agree Mike.

[Tailfeathers]

I'm not sure if it's the same thing going on here or not but I recently became aware of "Epigenetics" at an Apologetics Forum I attend where Dr. Robert Carter of CMI (might wanna Google him in you're not familiar with him) spoke on Biology & Genetics. 

I saw this article yesterday.  I commented "Just think of the ramifications!  This would seem to indicate that environmental impacts have a change inducing effect. I believe that's been determined wrt Epigenetics. Could some Science be afoot that will shed new light on..."  I went on to discuss some unrelated-poultry subjects.  But I think you could very well be onto something. 

This is BIG news!  And while it will very likely be quite some time before we know what is behind this genetic change it will no doubt have wide-ranging implications.  Some of which will probably answer what is still a mystery.  Some will create more mysteries.  And some will put an end to many misunderstanding, misperceptions, and outright falsehoods.

[John W Blehm]

There is a lengthy and somewhat heated topic called (Artificial) Surrogate Eggs, the Coop forum that gets into Epigeneties that I've found interesting.  It was started a few years ago.

Often we talk about whether a cause is genetic or environment.  Sometimes both contribute and maybe what appears to be genetic could be environmental causing altered genetic expression...or as we say here on the chicken farm "I don't know".