pangenesis

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pangenesis

(păn-jĕn′ĭ-sĭs)

A theory of heredity proposed by Charles Darwin in which gemmules containing hereditary information from every part of the body coalesce in the gonads and are incorporated into the reproductive cells.

pan′ge·net′ic (-jə-nĕt′ĭk) adj.

pan′ge·net′i·cal·ly adv.

pangenesis

[-jen′əsis]

Etymology: Gk, pan + genesis, origin

an idea that each cell and particle of a parent reproduces itself in progeny.

pangenesis

(păn″jĕn′ĕ-sĭs) [Gr. pan, all, + genesis, generation, birth]

The discredited hypothesis that each cell of the parent is represented by a particle in the reproductive cell, and thus each part of the organism reproduces itself in the progeny.

pangenesis

a now discarded hypothesis about heredity stating that the whole organism reproduces itself through all of its parts. The proposed mechanism is based on the supposed existence of gemmules in the blood each of them representing a cell of the body and each of them throws off an atom which is inherited by an offspring.

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References in periodicals archive ?

Precisamente De Vries comenzo en 1876 sus ensayos de hibridacion para contrastar la pangenesis de Darwin, sobre la cual escribio en 1888 su obra "Intracellulare pangenesis".

Bateson partio de Galton, era partidario de las teorias catastrofistas de Couvier y su critica a Darwin alcanzaba varios puntos: pangenesis, herencia de los caracteres adquiridos y cambios graduales.

El linchamiento de Lysenko

In chapters 17 and 18 of GA 1, Aristotle outlines in detail the various arguments in favor of pangenesis, and he rejects each in turn.

Hooker: "I feel sure that if Pangenesis is now still-born it will, thank God, at some future time re-appear, begotten by some other father, and christened by some other name"; The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin 3:78.

Aristotle and the metaphyics of evolution

Working in his study at Down House (see Figure 1), Darwin added several unique touches to the explanations for the source of variation and mechanism of inheritance available at the time and proposed what he called the provisional hypothesis of pangenesis (1868b, 1875).

Pangenesis posits that each body part and organ produces microscopic particles, called "gemmules" by Darwin.

Darwin was alternately delighted and challenged by his pangenesis insights.

Darwin's error: using the story of pangenesis to illustrate aspects of nature of science in the classroom

But proponents of pangenesis fail to take seriously Aristotle's stated objections to Empedocles' theory, namely, that the parts torn apart from each other (in the female and male parents, prior to being fitted together) would be in such an incomplete and imperfect state that they could not stay alive and healthy.

In elaborating his ideas about semen and its causal powers, Aristotle moves as far as possible away from the materialisms of pangenesis and preformation.

On the other hand, if there is something in the fetation from the start that forms it, Aristotle is then dangerously close to the pangenesis and preformation theories which hold that the miniaturized creature or the parts of the creature are already in the generative fluid.

The metaphysical science of Aristotle's 'Generation of Animals' and its feminist critics

This mechanism was called pangenesis (Moore, 1993), a term that means "originating from everywhere.

Given that the ancient scholars were read during Victorian times, it is likely that Darwin may have become vaguely acquainted with the principle of pangenesis years earlier, even without retaining a clear memory of the link.