Re: Patriarchy: Re: What Matriarchy?
Bryant (mycol1@unm.edu)
15 Aug 1996 16:33:03 -0600
In article <321251F3.716E@best.com>,
Joel and Lynn Gazis-Sax <gazissax@best.com> wrote:
>[Joel said to Lenny:]
>
>So you believe that you can expose any genotype to the world and precisely
>predict what kind of phenotype it is going to end up as just by looking
>at the genotype? I find /that/ hard to swallow.
How precise a prediction do you need, Joel?
(Note: that's not meant to be sarcastic or insulting.)
I mean, he can predict the sex and species.
That may sound flip at first, but think about it: where's the information
during development? Initially, at least, it's in the genes. How well
canalized the genotype is for a given trait will determine how precisely you
can predict phenotypes.
Environmental stress can corrupt the developmental integrity of an organism
so that phenotype isn't exactly what genotype "had in mind."
Alternatively, differences between imaginary clones exposed to different
environments may represent facultative ("genetically determined")
responses to different environmental parameters, if those variables were
encountered with some regularity through evolutionary time and affected
fitness in ancestral populations.
Bryant
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