Nilsson Eric E, Maamar Millissia Ben, Skinner Michael K
Center for Reproductive Biology, School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-4236, USA.
J Dev Biol. 2020 Dec 4;8(4):28. doi: 10.3390/jdb8040028.
For the past 120 years, the Weismann barrier and associated germ plasm theory of heredity have been a doctrine that has impacted evolutionary biology and our concepts of inheritance through the germline. Although August Weismann in his 1872 book was correct that the sperm and egg were the only cells to transmit molecular information to the subsequent generation, the concept that somatic cells do not impact the germline (i.e., the Weismann barrier) is incorrect. However, the doctrine or dogma of the Weismann barrier still influences many scientific fields and topics. The discovery of epigenetics, and more recently environmentally induced epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of phenotypic variation and pathology, have had significant impacts on evolution theory and medicine today. Environmental epigenetics and the concept of epigenetic transgenerational inheritance refute aspects of the Weismann barrier and require a re-evaluation of both inheritance theory and evolution theory.
在过去的120年里，魏斯曼屏障及相关的种质遗传理论一直是一种学说，它影响了进化生物学以及我们对通过种系遗传的概念。尽管奥古斯特·魏斯曼在其1872年的著作中认为精子和卵子是唯一能将分子信息传递给后代的细胞这一点是正确的，但体细胞不会影响种系（即魏斯曼屏障）这一概念是错误的。然而，魏斯曼屏障的学说或教条仍然影响着许多科学领域和话题。表观遗传学的发现，以及最近环境诱导的表型变异和病理学的表观遗传跨代遗传，对当今的进化理论和医学产生了重大影响。环境表观遗传学和表观遗传跨代遗传的概念驳斥了魏斯曼屏障的某些方面，需要对遗传理论和进化理论进行重新评估。
