Hormones and Heredity: A Discussion of the Evolution of Adaptations and the Evolution of SpeciesCunningham, J. T. (Joseph Thomas)
Science
Hormones and Heredity: A Discussion of the Evolution of Adaptations and the Evolution of Species
Cunningham, J. T. (Joseph Thomas)
Endocrinology; Heredity; Hormones; Mendel's law
It is to be noted here, a fact emphasised by DeVries in his earliest
publications on the subject, that in nearly all, if not all cases, a
mutation does not consist in a peculiarity of a single organ, but in an
alteration of the whole plant in every part. In this respect mutations as
observed in _Oenothera_ seem to be in striking contrast to the majority of
Mendelian characters. Mutation in fact seems to be a case of what the
earlier Darwinians called correlation, while Mendelian characters may
apparently be separated and rejoined in any combination. For example, in
breeds of fowls any colour or any type of plumage may be obtained with
single comb or with rose comb. In my own experiments on fowls the loose
kind of plumage first known in the Silky fowl, which is white, could be
combined with the coloured plumage of the type known as black-red. At the
same time it must be borne in mind that since the factor, whether a
portion of a chromosome or not, is transmitted in heredity as a part of a
single cell, the gamete, and since every cell of the developed individual
is derived by division from the single zygote cell formed by the union of
the two gametes, the factor or determinant must be contained in every cell
of the soma, except in cases where differential division, or what is
called somatic segregation, takes place. Thus the factor which causes the
comb to be a rose comb in a fowl must be present in the cells that produce
the plumage or the toes or any other part of the body. Morgan, as
mentioned above, finds in _Drosophila_ that factors do affect several
parts of the body. It is, however, curious to consider that the factor
which produces intense pigmentation of the skin and all the connective
tissue in the Silky fowl has no effect on the colour of the plumage in
that breed, which is a recessive white. The plumage is an epidermic
structure, and therefore distinct from the connective tissue, but it is
difficult to understand why a pigment factor though present in every cell
has no effect on epidermic cells.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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