St. Petersburg Branch of the S. I. Vavilov Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Russian Academy of Sciences, University Emb. 5, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia.
Biology Education Working Group, Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, Am Steiger 3, 07743 Jena, Germany.
Curr Biol. 2017 Oct 9;27(19):R1042-R1047. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.07.045.
During the late 1940s and 1950s, a pseudo-scientific concept based on Marxist-Leninist ideology became internationally known as 'Lysenkoism'. Lysenkoism was a neo-Lamarckian idea, claiming that in crop plants, such as wheat, environmental influences are heritable via all cells of the organism. Lysenkoism was applied to agriculture during the Stalin era with disastrous consequences. Despite the triumphs of modern genetics, and the disproval of Lysenkoism, recent years have seen a 're-thinking' of this doctrine in Russia. This disturbing pro-Lysenko movement, which is accompanied by a growing sympathy for Stalin, claims to have its scientific roots in modern epigenetics, specifically the heritability of variation by mechanisms other than changes in DNA sequence. Based on recent research on the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, its is clear that Lysenkoism has nothing to do with heritable 'epigenetic' modifications. Biologists should defend science against ideological and political interferences.
20 世纪 40 年代末至 50 年代，一种基于马克思列宁主义思想的伪科学概念在国际上被称为“李森科主义”。李森科主义是一种新拉马克主义的观点，声称在作物植物（如小麦）中，环境影响可以通过生物体的所有细胞遗传。在斯大林时代，李森科主义被应用于农业，带来了灾难性的后果。尽管现代遗传学取得了胜利，李森科主义也被否定，但近年来俄罗斯对这一学说进行了“重新思考”。这场令人不安的亲李森科运动伴随着对斯大林的日益同情，声称其科学根源在于现代表观遗传学，特别是除了 DNA 序列变化之外，通过其他机制遗传变异的能力。基于最近对模式植物拟南芥的研究，很明显，李森科主义与可遗传的“表观遗传”修饰无关。生物学家应该捍卫科学免受意识形态和政治干预。
