[mannykannot]

I take these points to be correct, but they seem tangential to what is (at least according to the article) the main issue at stake: can proteins modify the information passed on to descendants? If this were the case, there would be a mechanism whereby Lamarckian evolution could, at least in theory, occur.

In that regard, I feel this is particularly relevant:

"During an organism’s life, environmental conditions cause certain genes to get switched on or off. This often occurs through a process known as methylation, in which the cell adds a methyl group to a cytosine base in a DNA sequence. As a result, the cell no longer transcribes the gene.

"These effects occur most frequently in somatic cells — the cells that make up the body of the organism. If epigenetic marks occur in sex cells [however], they are wiped clean prior to egg and sperm formation. Then, once the sperm and eggs have fully formed, methylation patterns are re-established in each type of cell, meaning that the acquired genetic regulation is reset to baseline in the offspring."

[asdff]

Wait until you read about proteins that methylate dna and how this can persist across cell divisions and even generations.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8683130/

[mannykannot]

Biology is messy and imperfect, and generally not suited to dogmatic and other normative claims - but that is also covered in the article, which mentions how Crick was on the lookout for exceptions.

I would guess that, in the ordinary cases of cell division, the replication of methylation is, on balance, desirable, and that it probably requires an additional mechanism beyond minimal DNA base-sequence replication. In that case, its near-absence specifically within gamete production seems likely to be significant. The cases where methylation persists through generations should not be ignored, and neither should the existence of a mechanism that apparently exists to prevent (or at least constrain) it (or a mechanism to

[layer8]

The original article does discuss methylation.