This is an interesting discovery. At www.geneticarchaeology.com/research/Revolutionary_new_view_on_heritabili… … complex heritable traits can affect flowering times and plant architecture – and these, are passed on to subsequent generations according to a paper in Science Express (6th February, 2014). Is a revision of the genetics textbook in the offing?
DNA is thought to be the physical foundation of heredity – the genome, or genetic code. It now seems the functioning of our genes is also affected by epigenetic marks and this can suppress gene activity – to a degree. In mammals epigenetic marks are reset each generation – it is thought. It seems that in plants this process can differ. Epigenetic changes aquired in one generation can be passed on to the next. Now, attention will refocus on animalls (and insects) – can the same thing happen there?