Telegonia (genetics)

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The term telegonia (from gr . Τηλε tēle "fern" and γόνος gónos "descendants") describes a theory of heredity that has been rejected today , which was popular until the 19th century and is related to Lamarckism . It states that a previous pregnancy can affect the phenotype of offspring from subsequent pregnancies. Telegonia has been considered obsolete in scientific genetics since the rediscovery of Mendel's laws around 1900. Studies on the fly Telostylinus angusticollis suggest, however, that telegonia is possible in certain animal groups, as previous partners u. a. transfer seminal proteins in the ejaculate, which influence the fertility of the female egg cells .

history

Telegonia as a theory goes back to Aristotle and was not questioned as a phenomenon until well into the 19th century; for example, Charles Darwin assumed it existed. He cited in particular the case of Lord Morton's Mare , a brown Arab mare who was mated by a quagga stallion and who is said to have given birth to foals with zebra crossing during her subsequent pregnancies. The existence of telegonia was first questioned by August Weismann through his germplasm theory , and a series of experiments by James Cossar Ewart could not reproduce the phenomenon in another horse mare . From today's perspective, the zebra crossing of Lord Morton's mare's foal was probably a recessive feature.

Occasionally, in animal breeding, the idea is still to be found that a purebred female animal, which is mated by a different- breed or hybrid male, can never have purebred offspring as a result. For stilt flies, however, the mechanism was confirmed.

literature

  • Telegony in the Encyclopedia Americana
  • RW Burkhardt: Closing the door on Lord Morton's mare: the rise and fall of telegony. In: Stud Hist Biol 1979, 3: 1-21. PMID 11610983
  • H. Räber : La télégonie . In: Bréviaire de l'élevage modern du chien , Maloine 1978, page 29f.

Individual evidence

  1. AJ Crean, AM Kopps, R. Bonduriansky (2014): Revisiting telegony: offspring inherit an acquired characteristic of their mother's previous mate . Ecology Letters. doi : 10.1111 / ele.12373 . Open Access.
  2. ^ HC Bumpus: Facts and Theories of Telegony . In: The American Naturalist 1899, 33: 917-922
  3. H. Ritvo: Our Animal Cousins In: differences in 2004, 15 (1): ff 54th
  4. Revisiting telegony: offspring inherit an acquired characteristic of their mother's previous mate