Abstract

The “inheritance of acquired characters” (IAC) refers to the phenomenon that changes acquired by an organism during its lifetime are transmitted to its offspring. IAC is regarded as one of Lamarck's major contributions. Although IAC attracted lots of attentions in the late middle of 19 th century, it was abandoned after the famous Modern Synthesis. However, recent empirical studies from epigenetics might announce its revival. The investigation of the history of IAC reveals that there are at least two concepts of IAC, the traditional IAC and the commonsense one. Instead of the former, a kind of commonsense IAC has been revived by epigenetic inheritance.

Key Words

Inheritance of acquired characters; Epigenetic inheritance; Lamarckism

Citation: Lu, Q. 'Would Inheritance of Acquired Characters be Revived?' [J]. Journal of Dialectics of Nature, 2017, 39(6): 30-36.

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