1. Pretty obviously, epigenetics in bacteria provides only very weak support for epigenetics in humans.

2. The case against epigenetics in humans is laid out nicely by Razib Khan: https://www.razibkhan.com/p/you-cant-take-it-with-you-straig...

3. I've been to a few conferences which mixed geneticists with (human) epigenetics guys, and I have never been impressed with the quality of their work. Lots of different measures of "biological clocks". Lots of multiple hypotheses without much correcting for them. No clear theory. I ended up being very skeptical.

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throwaway173738 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I’d be curious to get to the heart of why we believe heritability in behavior is due to genetic changes. It’s way more likely to be due to mimetic changes.

	▲	rolph 10 hours ago \| parent [-]
		in terse, behaviour is dependent on neural activity; neural activity is dependent on expressivity, and penetrance of genetic constituency. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioural_genetics https://assets.cambridge.org/97811084/87979/frontmatter/9781... [PDF]

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rolph 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

here is some reading for you:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/chapter/edited-volume/...

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12204592/

https://sciencevivid.com/epigenetics/

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JumpCrisscross 9 hours ago | parent [-]

Throwing out a fundamentals text is valid. But you need to point out where OP made a mistake that's so elementary it requires going back to the basics for it to not come across as low dismissal.

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rolph 9 hours ago | parent [-]

the entire OP displays a lack of knowledge regarding epigenetic mechanisms, as well as a lack ot knowledge base required to make an informed appraisal.

the knowledge base required, is extensive for a non biologist, and made difficult to attain without experience interpreting decades long synthesis.

thus the fundamentals are provided, should anyone desire breadcrumbs pursuant to independant edifiction.

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dash2 5 hours ago | parent [-]

I'm a scientist with about four published papers in genetics - not a geneticist myself, but I coauthor. I'm simply reporting my experience with the field.

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rolph 4 hours ago | parent [-]

human gene regulation is dependent on methylation events and acetylation events, as well as conformal events with respect to the strand.

there is no meiotic reset to default.

you should hang with some oncogeneticists for fresh perspective.

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missinglugnut 3 hours ago | parent [-]

And absolutely none of that refutes the claims from Kahn that started this thread.

	▲	rolph 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		no thats wrong. there is a claim that epigenetic mechanisms in bacteria provide weak support for such in humans, not true it was the basis for realizing that epigenetic mechanisms exist, and was central to understanding regulaion of expression. there is a claim that meiosis resets the genome and that is absolutely untrue. regulation would be impossible if epigenetic state was wiped out, the result is most often cancer, or lethal dose effects at the cellular stage of development. you say you are not a geneticist yet you are criticizing geneticists for presentation of hypotheses while lacking the background. timing of binding and procession reative to halflife of the expression complex is a critical part of regulation of genetic activity. i am a scientist as well, molecular geneticist; organic chemist, nuclear physicist. i am a true polymath, this is not a meme, i contract for a body of government agencies, as a science officer, thus my ID and fine details of my work are not up for discussion, nor is any of my work for the last 10 years. i would however be fine discussing generalities of expression regulation systems if you like.