If your hand gets deformed or become blind before giving birth, would your child inherit this new trait?

Question

I want to ask a question about trait inheritance.

If during one's lifetime, he is involved in a serious accident that deforms his body in some way, will the child of this parent acquire these deformities? Do the parent's genetic information change in some way after the deformation?

A simple question, but if you would, I would love to hear explanations for your answers (scientific explanations, or real life experiences, or anything, to prove that you are not just bluffing). Thank you very much.

PS: For those who know, is "Lamarckism" a valid theory? If it is, is it valid for "GRADUAL" changes in the evolutionary process, or can it be applied to immediate one-generation cases?

Answer 1

Wow.... Seems like a hard question to answer. Sorry, I'm no help.

Answer 2

Nope.  Lamarkism is not valid.

Even supporters of Lamarck readily admitted that for some reason all accidents were never inherited.  Cut of a mouse's tail, and its offspring will still have tails.

Inheritance comes from genetics.  Since losing a limb does not change the instructions for making a limb, it has no effect.

Epigenetics has been confused with a form of Lamarckism (it's not).  These are other heritable changes other than genetics.  This includes maternal transcription factors present in the egg, methylated DNA, histone modifications, ect.

Answer 3

NO!...physical accident cannot change the sequence of your gene or DNA in any way...unless of course you are introduced to radiation which can lead to mutation.

Answer 4

The reason we look the way we look starts with our genome.  Our DNA contains the code for all the proteins our body can make.  This is passed on from generation to generation via sexual reproduction.  Any changes in this genome is called a mutation.  Mutations are raw material for change.  If enough DNA is mutated over a period of time, then you may begin to see changes in the structures they were responsible for.  If a person loses a finger in an accident, the genes for that structure were not damaged by the accident.  The person still can pass them on to his/her offspring.  The environment does have a role in human development.  If a person does not get what is needed to develop the genome fully the effects can show themselves in their development.  Malnutrition will stunt growth and postpone or stop the onset of puberty.  Vitamin deficiency will cause skeletal deformities and other diseases.  Lamarck had a nice explanation but went in the wrong direction.  They have experimented with cutting the tails off of mice to see if the tailless parents would produce tailless offspring.  All the offspring, generation after generation still had tails.

Answer 5

Traits acquired in life are not passed on to the next generation because the change does not occur in the germ cells (eggs or sperm).

Answer 6

The children would not inherit the deformity because it is not in the genetics.

Answer 7

No, because if you cut your hand off, your DNA doesn't change