logoalt Hacker News

jibalyesterday at 12:49 PM1 replyview on HN

Not all epigenetics is regulation of gene expression. The article says "these molecules transmit traits to offspring and that they can regulate embryonic development after fertilization" -- that's from the reporter, but I don't have faith that "transmit traits" is at all accurate--it certainly isn't true in the way that genes express traits. And then they quote an actual epigeneticist saying “We just don’t have really any understanding of how RNAs can do this, and that’s the hand-wavy part”


Replies

sigmoid10yesterday at 4:29 PM

>that's from the reporter, but I don't have faith that "transmit traits" is at all accurate

It is pretty accurate, even if we don't understand all details yet. Here's a review article of the current research that's not from a popsci journalist: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37820-2