this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2024
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[–] Phineaz@feddit.org 22 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Tough luck, this might affect his grandkid, not the kid. Epigenetic imprinting (the semi-permanent kind) is done during oogenesis, which if I am right occurs during pregnancy.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 33 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

It's also not necessarily a net-gain. There are a bunch of trade-offs to being better able to deal with a lack of food. Specifically, by sacrificing body mass and brain development to conserve energy.

Surviving adverse conditions can mean developing novel evolutionary strategies. But it can also just amount to evolutionary downsizing. Living as a smaller, weaker, stunted version of your predecessors because the runt of the litter needs fewer calories to get by.

[–] groet@feddit.org 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yeah I was about to say. Aren't children from families that suffered famines much more likely to have (and have children that have) digestive problems and food related deficensies?

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

And heart and respiratory and neurological, etc etc

[–] thefluffiest@feddit.nl 12 points 6 months ago (1 children)

What’s the plan with the raptor? Increase the kid’s running speed? Anxiety? Fear of birds? Love for Spielberg movies?

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 7 points 6 months ago

The ability to perfectly deliver the line, "clever girl."

[–] Limonene@lemmy.world 11 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Epigenetics is black magic to me. The starvation thing is true, but it mostly happens in the liver and pancreas and stuff. The testicles and ovaries don't express the genes relating to starvation, even when starved. So how does the reproductive DNA pass on epigenetic data to the child and grandchild?

[–] NaibofTabr 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca 3 points 6 months ago

If they starve as young

[–] flyos@jlai.lu 8 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

"Epigenetics shows..." cries in evolutionary biology having demonstrated inter-generational plasticity for more than 30 years, totally ignored by molecular geneticists who discovered after everybody else that everything is not about DNA

[–] sbv@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 months ago

Plan for the future

In 2011 I heard about/read a study/article that detailed the listed example.

Tldr dieting while pregnant will make your baby more likely to be overweight. Don't do that.

[–] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Nothing wrong with that

[–] ArdMacha@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Epigenetics is part of how DNA works though, it isn't separate