Surprise: rice adapts to cold faster than evolution.

Lamarck’s Theory of Acquired Characters

• The theory of acquired characters, proposed by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1809, suggested that characteristics developed during an organism’s lifetime could be inherited by its offspring.

• This theory was challenged by August Weismann’s demonstration that even after cutting the tails of mice continuously for over five generations, there was no inheritance of this acquired characteristic in the offspring.

• The rediscovery of Gregor-Johann Mendel’s work, which showed inheritance is governed by stable, particulate units (now called genes) that are passed unchanged from parents to offspring, laid the foundation for understanding heredity.

The Role of Epigenetics

• In 1956, Canadian plant geneticist Royal Alexander Brink noticed that some plants produced only weak pigments despite carrying the same genes, suggesting that something other than DNA was influencing the trait.

• Scientist Arthur Riggs proposed that these chemical tags, or epigenetic marks, could be inherited, meaning organisms could potentially pass on instructions about gene activity without changing their DNA sequence.

Lamarck’s Redeemed Study

• A landmark study published in Cell showed that rice plants can acquire tolerance to cold temperatures by changing the epigenetic marks on a gene called ACT1.

• The study found that from the second generation onwards, seed quality improved and was sustained across subsequent generations.

• The researchers identified 12 genes whose activity varied and discovered more than 12,380 differences between the two groups.

• One of the changes was near a gene called ACT1, which was also among the 12 genes with altered expression.

The Cold-Adapted Rice Study

• The study showed that inheritance is not determined by the code for life but by what that life has endured.