… The fundamental belief called genetic determinism essentially means that our lives, which are defined as the physical, biological and emotional characteristics of our behavior, are fully controlled by our genetic code.
Beliefs of this kind create an image of people as helpless victims, since if genes have the ability to control the functioning of our lives, then our lives are determined by external factors which we do not have the ability to change! This leads to a victim mentality that we can do nothing about the diseases and conditions that are observed to appear within a family and multiply through inheritance. Laboratory evidence has shown that this is not the case…
This is what American biologist Bruce Lipton supports. 1 In mainstream biotechnology circles he is considered marginal: to some extent not unjustifiably, since his view (and not only his own) that gene expression is largely determined by the environment has taken him very far. He has even declared that the way cells work proves the existence of God. 2 Meanwhile, beyond metaphysics, Lipton has proceeded to a regular declaration of war against the “holy grail” of biotechnology companies: genetically modified species. “Just” condemnation of his in the margins!
However, the arguments (and experimental findings) of epigenetic researchers are not only not negligible, but are constantly increasing. Practically, for a decade now, related research has been the fastest growing field in biology. Some even speak of a “revolution.” We could talk about a Paradigm Shift in biology; although, as often happens in techno-scientific circles, the previous Paradigm (genetic determinism, the dogma “each one is what his dna is”) still holds strong, certainly as an ideology of mass consumption and trade of applications.
Epigenetics is the study of characteristics or “phenotypes” whose variations are not due to changes in the DNA sequence. Practical epigenetic research has already expanded considerably, and this happens in biology (in biotechnology) as it has happened with every “scientific truth” for centuries: it tries to establish itself as such (as “The Truth”) by pushing aside and concealing any real phenomena that do not fit.
Here is such a phenomenon, which is commonplace even for completely unrelated individuals: in a hive, the “fly” called (by beekeepers) queen has critical differences from the “fly” called worker. 3 Although they have exactly the same DNA! Empirically, beekeepers know how this functional and appearance differentiation arises: due to different feeding of the larvae (that the hive intends for “queens”) from the rest, during the incubation phase. The first are fed with royal jelly, a specially composed food that the “workers” prepare when either the replacement of the existing “queen” (due to old age) is imminent or the creation of additional “queens” for the splitting of the hive (due to overpopulation) is needed. However, if nutrition – an obviously external factor – can change the phenotypic expression of DNA, then this means that the sequence of genes alone is not determinative in shaping an organism.
There are also other phenomena that do not concern insects but our own species. One such phenomenon, which has attracted particular attention, emerged during World War II. In its final year, the German occupation army in the Netherlands imposed an embargo on the supply of food produced in rural areas to the cities, seizing it. This prohibition, combined with a harsh winter, resulted in severe famine. It is estimated that approximately 20,000 Dutch people died of starvation during the winter of 1944 – 1945.
Despite the chaos of occupation and war, statistical data regarding births were systematically kept by Dutch civil registries and hospitals. This allowed subsequent research to observe that embryos conceived during the famine had, in their lifetimes, significantly higher rates of developing various diseases compared to those conceived afterward. The records showed that the greatest sensitivity occurred in the first months of pregnancy. Hunger or poor nutrition of the pregnant woman: another epigenetic factor that influenced (human organisms in this case) without causing genetic change…
In the end, there is something even more commonplace that has not been taken into account (and the “absence” of explanations does not appear in the ideological interpretation of any scientific “truth”). Each of us originates from a single initial cell, cell number 1, the fertilized egg. The subsequent cell division is supposedly a replication of the same original DNA. However, how do cells with such different characteristics and functions, such as human somatic cells, arise from the same “template”? How (and why) do so many variations in gene “expression” occur on the exact same DNA sequence? And moreover, not just once during pregnancy but gradually?
Nutritional factors (enriched food in the case of bees, starvation in the case of famine in occupied Holland) that change, often fundamentally, the supposed rigid “expression” of genes: they could, with more scientific terminology, be called chemical factors of external origin. If this is so easy to observe, then the whole concept of genetic determinism changes. Of course, no bee larva will become a baby hippopotamus, no matter how much its diet changes! However, if external factors (and, obviously, nutrition is not the only one) can produce more or less significant differences in the “functioning of the genetic code”, then both genetic determinism (the dominant biotechnological “truth” even today) and the rhetoric about the “safety” of genetically modified organisms collapse! Up to this point, both Lipton and the other (“as it should be”) biotechnologists studying epigenetics are right! That’s why the former was declared heretical, while epigenetics has required several years of research to begin to be recognized.
Could this new biotechnological yet non-linear Paradigm, therefore, explain various reactions of the human body against itself, collectively called “autoimmune diseases”? Perhaps yes. As the environment in all its complexity (social, natural, chemical, etc.) has unmistakably re-entered the stage of biotechnological deterministic anatomy, many things are being researched from scratch, instead of being swept under the rug.
One thing is certain: acknowledging the strategic importance of the environment in a “truth” that had been sidelined for being excessively linear (the “you are your genes”) adds N factors (with N tending toward infinity) to something that had been sold as “finite.” We cannot underestimate the future capitalist exploitation of this extremely complex New Biological Paradigm; surely, though, it will be something far more difficult than the achievements thus far.
In the process of forming, with increasing self-confidence, the new “Biological Paradigm”, epigenetics specialists believe they are finding new “truths”:
…The three main epigenetic mechanisms are DNA methylation, histone modifications, and the presence of micro-RNAs (miRNAs). All three mechanisms can regulate gene transcription.
DNA methylation, the epigenetic mechanism that has been most extensively studied in most research, involves the addition of methyl groups to cytosines through the action of enzymes. This addition results in the compaction of chromatin and consequently the suppression of gene expression. DNA methylation also contributes to the maintenance of genome integrity by preventing the transcription of repetitive DNA sequences and endogenous transposons. miRNAs are single-stranded RNA segments that do not carry codes for protein synthesis and negatively regulate gene expression by binding to messenger RNA (mRNA) regions. Epigenetic mechanisms have been associated with exposure to environmental pollutants. Exposure to toxic metals, including arsenic, cadmium, lead, nickel, chromium, and methylmercury, has been linked to aberrant changes in DNA methylation and histone modifications…
The methylation of DNA is considered a chemical process. It is described as the addition of a methyl group to one of the carbon molecules of “cytosine”, one of the 4 nitrogenous bases considered as “the basic components” of DNA (the others have been named “adenine” – A, “guanine” – G and “thymine” – T). 4 However, “methylation” is not a static process. Unknown for what reasons is not the addition (or absence) of just one methyl group that functions as an on/off “switch” for the “expression” of a point in the DNA sequence. There is a range (or, at least, at this stage of “discoveries” epigenetics specialists are finding) from one to four methyl groups that can “stick” to the cytosine molecule. Therefore, there are 4 “levels” of intervention in the expression or not of a gene. Four methyl groups imply off in its expected expression. The other intermediate versions may mean modification of this “expression”…
and what about trade?
The new biotechnological paradigm has indeed been recognized, but it still has a long way to go before reaching that point of “new Truth” that can be sold. Not only ideologically, but also commercially. On this journey, it will need to create new deterministic explanations: the acceptance of some kind of chaos is synonymous with “ignorance,” and this cannot be accepted by the general public as “science”… We can speculate from now that the approach will be some kind of “chemical” intervention/correction in these processes of canceling or modifying the “expression” of genes 5 considered harmful… All the more so since the horizon of research into how and what of epigenetics has reached the number one disease of the last century, cancer; the way cancerous cells are created.
Since, therefore, there is still a distance to be traveled for the full and thoroughly established “epigenetic truth,” the previous, genetically deterministic “truth” (No. 1, let’s say) still stands on its pedestal. Can you imagine, then, what awaits the mythical CRISPR/Cas9 when genetic determinism No. 1 is dissolved into a thousand pieces? 6 Whatever we manage to sell! The Chinese geneticist He Jiankui rightfully belongs to this category of the “hasty”! 7
This “whatever we manage to sell” (from the long – from – the – collapsing public first deterministic biotechnological “queen”) is much more than just talk! We live in capitalism. The fact that various (university) shops – certainly in our parts – push research those bio-truths that can lead directly to “practical results” (that is, to the old fairy tales that can be sold) shows that the evolving Paradigm Change will not be bloodless at all – for the masses of biotechnology consumers. The “old” experts and their bosses will squeeze out as much profit as they can (in money, in posts, etc.) before they leave…
Perhaps, indeed, with their “mistakes” they will secure extra clientele for the next Paradigm. It won’t be the first time something like this happens in capitalist history…
Ziggy Stardust
cyborg #14 – 2/2019
- In the book The Biology of belief – Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, 2005. ↩︎
- Wherever and previously: It is our beliefs, not our dna, that control our biology… ↩︎
- The terms “queen” and “worker” are, of course, not merely anthropocentric but political. In practice, the hive constitutes a single body, and the different “flies” constitute, from many perspectives, its “cells.” Consequently, the “fly” called the “queen” not only has no authority over the other “flies” but rather constitutes the end of the genetic system of the hive as a single body/organism. ↩︎
- Strong doubts have begun to be expressed even as to whether these “bases” are only 4 or more. Already, methylated cytosine (methylcytosine) is classified as a distinct, 5th “base”, with the code name mC. But for the past five years, research has been underway regarding the methylation of another one of the (original) “bases”, adenine (which has been dubbed mA):
…Three studies now published in «Cell» describe the possible existence of yet another base, methyladenine (mA), which is formed by the methylation of adenine and may prove to be yet another epigenetic factor.
…The studies show that methyladenine “regulates the expression of specific genes, and therefore constitutes a new epigenetic factor,” says Manel Esteller of the University of Barcelona, who co-authors a commentary article in the same issue of Cell.
«These experiments became feasible thanks to the development of highly sensitive analytical methods, as the levels of mA described in the genomes are low».
«Furthermore, mA appears to play a specific role in stem cells and the early stages of embryonic development,» he points out.
Source: “bhma” – May 5, 2015 ↩︎ - Besides methylation, epigenetic action also involves acetylation, which concerns certain “operational” DNA proteins, the histones… ↩︎
- For crispr/cas 9: Cyborg no 8: genetic tailoring: the big trick, Cyborg no 13: crispr/cas9: the “scissors of god” is unleashed! ↩︎
- More on the relentless machine (sarajevomag.net): Friday, November 30 (More than 5 minutes of publicity, HIV-proof;, Bio-provocateurs) and Wednesday, December 5 (Scam only? Provocation?) ↩︎