tdweomer

I'm not a biologist but I smell somethin' fishy about these statements: " The cells in your body replicate continuously. Your RNA and DNA are also replicating. The RNA stores the collective genetic memory of your family line (life experiences). In reality we see this in Savants. Some savants can memorize entire calenders, addressbooks, sports statistics, mathematical equations, even entire encyclopedias and dictionaries! (Think of Spock from Star Trek and Rain Man)

In one documentary on the Health channel studies show that Savants occur from 1 in every 100,000 people. These natural savants do have genetic memory. The wierd thing is that 75% of the parents of these Savants work in fields that are data intensive. For instance, the father of the savant who could tell you every baseball stat of the 20th century was a retired Statistics professor!

DNA is the building block for the physical form. RNA is the instructions on not only how the cells are to use the DNA, but also how they are to interact with their environment. To put it plain and simple, DNA is the blueprint, RNA is the User's Manual of your body. RNA not only replicates itself (like DNA), it also transcribes itself (updates itself) so that new cells get updated instructions. This is why a man who is a martial artist can passed down his RNA to his descendants. The cells in his descendants remember! Unfortunately, this is a mixed blessing. Their are diseases and stimuli that can erase key segments of RNA. Some of the results of this are Alcohol Fetal Syndrome, Attention Deficiency Syndrome, and Dyslexia (my son got it from his mother's side of the family even though he got his math skills from my side)."

These were comments made on an informal Internet forum. If anyone here can comment on these statements, and/or provide links commenting on them, I would be in your debt.

Quetzal

Hi tdweomer.

Yeah, there's more than a little bit fishy about the whole post. In the first place, the underlying premise is false: it's some kind of neo-Lamarckism (inheritance of acquired characteristics). DNA doesn't encode things you've "learned" in life. A weight lifter can't pass on large muscles to their kids, for instance. So any learned ability - such as statistics or martial arts - WON'T be inherited and hence is not passed on to the next generation.

Savants and idiot savants. This website, Wisconsin Medical Society site on savant syndrome should provide you with enough real medical information to counter the bald and erroneous assertions in the post. Happy reading.

RNA/DNA. Your opponent is completely wrong - and uses a very misleading analogy. DNA is more like a blueprint or template that contains all the information needed for "how to be an organism". To stretch the blueprint analogy, RNA is the general contractor that translates the DNA blueprint into the proteins etc that actually does the work. RNA does NOT code for inheritable traits. DNA codes for RNA. So the argument that RNA passes something down through the generations simply shows an utter lack of understanding of basic biology and basic inheritance. DNA is inherited, RNA is not. Tell the guy, "thanks for playing".

Oh yeah. Some kinds of RNA can self-replicate. DNA cannot replicate without the action of RNA. Cells ARE constantly replicated - and all of the nucleotides in them as well. However, they are also constantly dieing off. A change or mutation in a non-sex cell (called a somatic mutation) isn't inherited. Only changes in the gametes are passed down. This is another reason why acquired characteristics aren't inherited.

Hope this helps.

Lobstrosity

I'd just like to support Morpho when he says those statements are crap: those statements are crap.

NialScorva

As stated the person is wrong. However, some of the statements might have a kernel of truth to them by reversing the causality. The savant's father is attracted to a career as a statistician because he's a "semi-savant", and married a mother that had similar traits. ADHD and dyslexia are possibly hereditary too.

Saying FAS is hereditary is bizarre. FAS is an injury, saying it's hereditary is like saying that a broken arm is hereditary. I supposes that one could argue it's hereditary in the same sense that religion is, though.

ps418

Can't find the reference at the moment, but I remember reading that autistic children tend to have fathers disproportionately in engineering and technical fields. Of course, most autistic people are not savants.

Oh, yeah, and there is no such thing as "genetic memory," in any literal sense. Germ line DNA is not altered by memory formation or sensory experience, so far as anyone can tell.

Patrick

ps418

This is bunk too. RNA does not encode instructions about how to interact with the environment, any more than DNA does. For instance, there is nothing in the phenylalinine hydroxylase RNA specifying "in low phenylaline environment, then normal blood phenylalinine." The interaction is simply what happens.

tdweomer

Thanks to everyone. I love this forum !

LostGirl

This is fatuous on the part of this person. RNA doesn't persist in the cell! Cells have special enzymes dedicated to degrading mRNA (a messenger kind of RNA that is 'transcribed' instructions from DNA, and is expressed is varying amounts in response to environmental cues) for a particular reason. If mRNA stays in the the cytoplasm of the cell after the circumstance requiring the production of the particular protein is over, then the cell wastes its resources producing a sophisticated protein that serves no purpose. Indeed, when protein production is not carefully orchestrated by the mechanisms that degrade mRNA, every system gets out of whack quite quickly, and usually, the cell dies. The strategy is: make it quickly, use it quickly, then get rid of it. You can always make more if you need it.

There are other kinds of RNA - RNA that's intimately bound up with ribosomal proteins and coordinates the reading of the mRNA with the addition of the right kind of amino acid (which are ferried ('transferred') around in their singular state by tRNA) in the order designated by the mRNA. There are snRNAs in the nucleus which coordinate some aspects of transcription. There are mitochondrial RNAs which are transcribed from their genomes. What is noticeable about all of them is that they all degrade on their own without upkeep or replacement. RNA in the lab is not considered to be a very stable molecule - any molecular biologist understands the importance of not leaving your RNA filled test tubes sitting around needlessly because you won't get good results.

malookiemaloo

Why is it then that in the UK here we see international soccer players who have sons who also become internationals/


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Majestyk

There can be several answers to that question which, do not require discarding what has been learned in the fiield of microbiology. Some can be attributed to the genetic traits in the father's DNA that were passed to the offspring and others can attributed to social environment, and then there's the offsprings desire to emulate the parent.

I'm unaware of any biological mechanism that will encode memory into RNA.