Variation Versus Heredity

Heredity and Variation

Students often do not understand the critical role of variation to evolutionary processes. In fact, variation is the only fundamental requirement for evolution to occur. Natural selection is often erroneously perceived to have this role; however, natural selection is a mechanism of evolution (one of several), while variation is a prerequisite for evolution. In other words, there can be evolutio...

Cardiomyopathy in Africa: heredity versus environment

Unlike other parts of the world in which cardiomyopathy is rare, heart muscle disease is endemic in Africa. The major forms of cardiomyopathy in Africa are dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and endomyocardial fibrosis (EMF). Whereas DCM is a major cause of heart failure throughout the continent, EMF is restricted to the tropical regions of East, Central, and West Africa. Although epidemiological stu...

Hologynic Heredity.

Sex-linked characters in man are well known; they are all pathological characters, so far as known; they are transmitted according to the same laws as the sex-linked characters in the little fruit-fly (Drosophila) and explained in the same manner by means of the sex chromosome. I propose the name “diagynic heredity” for this kind of heredity, as the sex-linked character is transmitted from male...

Heredity in Ovarian Cystoma

Rethinking heredity, again.

The refutation of 'soft' inheritance and establishment of Mendelian genetics as the exclusive model of heredity is widely portrayed as an iconic success story of scientific progress. Yet, we are witnessing a re-emergence of debate on the role of soft inheritance in heredity and evolution. I argue that this reversal reflects not only the weight of new evidence but also an important conceptual ch...