Epide-la-genetique

Genetics, in the sense of all genes, does not determine everything. It soon became apparent that complex mechanisms such as methylation can activate or inactivate certain genes, in order to regulate the anatomical or functional characteristics that they are supposed to determine. Some of these mechanisms are environmentally induced and transmissible, so that the innate characteristics can adapt to environmental changes without modifying the genes themselves. The study of these mechanisms is the subject of epide-la-genetique.

Conrad Waddington (1905-1975) is the term “epigenetic” (1942), meaning “the branch of biology that studies cause-effect relationships between genes and their products, revealing the phenotype.

To quote Peter Becker (Professor of Molecular Biology, Munich, Germany): “…the mechanisms of adaptation of the individual or species to changes in the environment are not only by random mutations, but by much faster action of mechanisms to control gene expression. (…) The epide-la-genetique looks a little like the way you organize your papers at home?: you keep those you use regularly at hand, but you put old school bulletins in boxes that you put in the attic. (…) ?The image of adaptability to the past century is outdated, which may give hope that the adaptation of the human organism and of all actors in ecological balance to the artifacts introduced by man is more easily achievable. ”

However, epigenetic mechanisms are themselves limited. In the face of any changes in the environment or lifestyle, the question remains whether or not it exceeds the adaptability limits of the species concerned. The surest way to decide is obviously empirical observation.

These are in themselves lapalissades. The originality of human ecogenetics is to wonder about the changes imposed by civilization on the way of life and the environment, whether they result from the natural functioning of human psychism, or from dysfunctions induced by certain accidental or cultural factors, which it tries to highlight.