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Title: 'Landmark' Evolution Study Shows How Rice Inherits Tolerance To Cold
Without DNA Changes

Link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/05/23/1...

Rice plants can inherit tolerance to cold without changes to their genomes,
according to a decade-long study carried out by researchers in China. From a
report: The work, published in Cell this week, strengthens the evidence for a
form of evolution in which environmental pressures induce heritable changes
that do not alter an organism's DNA. The study conducted experiments that
demonstrate, for the first time, the mechanism for these changes --
'epigenetic' tweaks to chemical markers on the plant's DNA that don't
actually tinker with the sequences themselves. "What they're showing is
extremely convincing; I would say that it's a landmark in the field," says
Leandro Quadrana, a plant geneticist at the French National Centre for
Scientific Research in Paris-Saclay. Michael Skinner, who studies epigenetic
inheritance at Washington State University in Pullman, says the study adds to
the growing body of evidence challenging the prevailing view of evolution
that the only way that adaptations emerge is through gradual natural
selection of randomly arising DNA mutations. This study shows that the
environment isn't just a passive actor in evolution, but a selective force
inducing a targeted change.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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