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From: Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: OT: Dynamic DNA structures and the formation of memory
Date: Mon, 6 May 2024 10:51:51 +1000
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On 6/05/2024 8:00 am, John Larkin wrote:
> On Sun, 05 May 2024 05:36:06 GMT, Jan Panteltje
> <pNaonStpealmtje@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>> Dynamic DNA structures and the formation of memory
>> https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/05/240501125755.htm
>> Summary:
>> An international collaborative research team has discovered that G-quadraplex DNA
>> (G4-DNA) accumulates in neurons and dynamically controls the activation and
>> repression of genes underlying long-term memory formation.
>>
>>
>>
>> I have always though that memory could be stored as DNA sequenxes...
> 
> More likely RNA or some other protein.
> 
> The oft-mocked Lamarckian concept, of genetic learning (not just
> natural selection) is probably real, and some reverse transcription
> does happen, namely that DNA is edited within the life of one
> organism. 

Only an idiot could think that. The DNA that ends up in eggs and sperm 
gets there very early, and isn't in a position to benefit from the life 
experience of the potential parent.

>But remembering where you left your glasses is probably
> handled at a lower level than editing your chromosones.

Chromosome editing by methylation (which we do know about) and the 
vaguely specified "structural changes" that Jan Panteltje's waffle 
invokes isn't going to edit the chromosomes you pass on to the next 
generation.

> We do have short-term memory too. We don't want to junk up our
> chromosomes remembering every grocery list.

What we want doesn't come into evolution. It's a process of putting 
changes into a our genome at random, and selecting out the changes that 
don't work. The only "want" involved is the desire to stay alive and 
have off-spring.

-- 
Bill Sloman, Sydney