Influences beside genetics and environment

  • Thread starter Thread starter Loren Booda
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Genetics
Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion explores the various influences on the development of organisms beyond genetics and environment, including concepts such as ontogeny, cell structure, psychology, hormones, and stochastic factors. Participants examine the complexity of these influences and how they interact with each other.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants suggest that random chance and stochastic processes play a significant role in development, particularly in chemical gradients.
  • Epigenetics is proposed as a major factor influencing development, allowing for traits to be passed down that are not directly coded in genes.
  • One participant introduces the idea of interaction between genetics and environment, suggesting that neither plays an overwhelming role in isolation.
  • Social hierarchization and individual worldviews are discussed as important factors that influence development, beyond the broad category of "environment."
  • There is a contention regarding the definitions of nurture and environment, with some arguing that nurture encompasses more than just environmental factors.
  • Questions are raised about the nature of internal factors affecting individuals, such as whether they are uncaused or self-caused.
  • Some participants draw parallels between epigenetics and Lamarckian ideas, suggesting that there may be similarities in how traits are inherited.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the definitions of nurture and environment, with some arguing that all influences can be categorized under these terms, while others believe in a broader interpretation. The discussion remains unresolved regarding the extent and nature of various influences on development.

Contextual Notes

There are limitations in the definitions and categorizations of terms like nurture and environment, as well as the implications of stochastic influences. The discussion reflects a variety of perspectives without reaching a consensus.

Loren Booda
Messages
3,108
Reaction score
4
What influences the development of an organism, or organisms in general, other than genetics and environment? E. g., would ontogeny, cell structure, psychology or hormones qualify?
 
Biology news on Phys.org
Random chance plays a part.
Particuarly in the chemical gradient fields that direct development.

Identical twins arn't perfectly identical, even though one could argue that both the genetics and environment are the same.
 
NoTime said:
Random chance plays a part.
Aka stochastics.

The development of an organism is influenced by many things. Environment is a big word and can contain a lot of things. A major thing that has recently been identified is epigenetics: passing down traits that are not coded in the genes, but rather in a layer upon that.
 
You could also consider the idea of interaction.

Phenotype = Genetics <interact> Environment

The concept is that neither Genetics nor Environment plays an overwhelming role (usually meaning mortality) - during a part of the time an organism exists...
 
All excellent ideas! Just as I would ask for.
 
The difference between an individual that grows up with a leader attitude and his twin that grows up with a submissive attitude will be enormous at maturity, and this just can't be bluntly encompassed in "environment".

You should add social hierarchisation as a factor of its own.
 
SF said:
The difference between an individual that grows up with a leader attitude and his twin that grows up with a submissive attitude will be enormous at maturity, and this just can't be bluntly encompassed in "environment".

You should add social hierarchisation as a factor of its own.

What, cultural circumstances are not "environment"? Why ever not?
 
What I said can't be called "cultural circumstances". I was talking about an individual's worldview: how _he_ imagines the world he's living in.
 
I've yet to see something that does not fall under the category of either genetics ("nature") or environment (" nurture "). All the suggestions fall into these including stochastic fluctuations, which would be environment.
 
  • #10
Ah, but there is your error: you identify nurture with the environment.
Environment is included in nurture but they're not the same thing.

Nurture = everything that affects the individual. Period.
Environment = all the external factors that affect the individual.
Pyche = all the internal factors that affect the individual.

Psyche + Environment together are Nurture, or at least that's how I see it.
 
  • #11
SF said:
Pyche = all the internal factors that affect the individual.

Psyche + Environment together are Nurture, or at least that's how I see it.

And these internal factors are uncaused? Or self-caused? Or what?
 
  • #12
epigenetics?? sounds Lamarckian (sp?) LOL
 
  • #13

Similar threads

A New Niche for Life at Low G
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
2K
Book Review: The Gene's-Eye View of Evolution
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
3K
What do feral children teach us about the development of IQ? (moved to Discussion)
  • · Replies 45 ·
2
Replies
45
Views
5K
News Sydney Brenner: Pioneering Biolgist Who Developed C. Elegans Model Organism
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K
Is epigenetics an additional mechanism for natural selection?
  • · Replies 16 ·
Replies
16
Views
3K
A Different View of Color Vision Development
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
4K
Several questions about genetic engineering
  • · Replies 7 ·
Replies
7
Views
2K
Omnigenetic model for complex traits
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
4K
Is a black skin related to melanin's relation with adrenaline?
  • · Replies 20 ·
Replies
20
Views
4K
Synthesis of a re-designed E. coli genome
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
3K