Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Lamarckism" in English language version.
Modern neo-Darwinists do not deny that epigenetic mechanisms play an important role during development nor do they deny that these mechanisms enable a variety of adaptive responses to the environment. Recurrent, predictable changes of epigenetic state provide a useful set of switches that allow genetically-identical cells to acquire differentiated functions and allow facultative responses of a genotype to environmental changes (provided that 'similar' changes have occurred repeatedly in the past). However, most neo-Darwinists would claim that the ability to adaptively switch epigenetic state is a property of the DNA sequence (in the sense that alternative sequences would show different switching behavior) and that any increase of adaptedness in the system has come about by a process of natural selection.
Modern neo-Darwinists do not deny that epigenetic mechanisms play an important role during development nor do they deny that these mechanisms enable a variety of adaptive responses to the environment. Recurrent, predictable changes of epigenetic state provide a useful set of switches that allow genetically-identical cells to acquire differentiated functions and allow facultative responses of a genotype to environmental changes (provided that 'similar' changes have occurred repeatedly in the past). However, most neo-Darwinists would claim that the ability to adaptively switch epigenetic state is a property of the DNA sequence (in the sense that alternative sequences would show different switching behavior) and that any increase of adaptedness in the system has come about by a process of natural selection.
