Question:
<rest of biotech info and its apparent lack of effect on my Norwegian heritage-laced swing snipped So…..do you guys inhale or exhale when starting your backswing????? :-) I’m sure glad that somebody knows this stuff! Wow!
Genetics is what I do when I’m supposed to be playing golf. Inhale or exhale? Hmm, I think I hold my breath. Is that bad? Ed Stephenson
Response:
Darwin via the monk Mendel talked about physical traits of a species which were advantagous to surviving in their environment. And every golfer has specific physical characteristics which help them ensure maximum survival in the hostile environment we call "courses." No two bodies are exactly alike. Personally, I’m tall and lanky with long arms. The advantages this could lend to my golf swing/game might include: easy full rotation, high clubspeed because my swing arc is longer, and high loft on the ball from a steep swing plane. Disadvantages might include more margin for error and less distance. Now Darwin also says that those beneficial traits will be passed along to the next generation. Obviously, depending on what type of women I eventually (yikes) procreate with, maybe i can pass along the good golfing genes to my critters. The question is: Does the more golf i play effect the probobility of passing along such genes which help my game (golf survival )? It is an environment yes? Can one’s swing be genetically transferred as easily as one’s hair color? If not in one generation, how about over a few generations? Just wondering. just bored…. m
Response:
sorry no…..you cannot pass on "aquired" characteristics. You can only pass on whatever genetic potential you might have for athleticism. It doesn’t matter whether you play golf once a week, every day, or never, it will not affect which genes you pass to your offspring. To use your hair color example, if you dye your hair blonde it will not affect the chances or your passing along blonde hair genes to your children. P.S. Darwin apparently knew nothing about Mendel and didn’t understand the mechanisms of inheritance, even though Mendel’s experiments had already been published. It took later biologists to put 2 + 2 together, giving a true genetic basis to Darwin’s idea of natural selection. Tim
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Darwin via the monk Mendel talked about physical traits of a species which were advantagous to surviving in their environment. And every golfer has specific physical characteristics which help them ensure maximum survival in the hostile environment we call "courses." No two bodies are exactly alike. Personally, I’m tall and lanky with long arms. The advantages this could lend to my golf swing/game might include: easy full rotation, high clubspeed because my swing arc is longer, and high loft on the ball from a steep swing plane. Disadvantages might include more margin for error and less distance. Now Darwin also says that those beneficial traits will be passed along to the next generation. Obviously, depending on what type of women I eventually (yikes) procreate with, maybe i can pass along the good golfing genes to my critters. The question is: Does the more golf i play effect the probobility of passing along such genes which help my game (golf survival )? It is an environment yes? Can one’s swing be genetically transferred as easily as one’s hair color? If not in one generation, how about over a few generations? Just wondering. just bored…. m
Response:
You’d have better chances for a golfing child if you find a lady who golfs better than you do. (or even is more athletic than you are, which might or might not be a good idea…) Just a thought, Teresa
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Darwin via the monk Mendel talked about physical traits of a species which were advantagous to surviving in their environment. And every golfer has specific physical characteristics which help them ensure maximum survival in the hostile environment we call "courses." No two bodies are exactly alike. Personally, I’m tall and lanky with long arms. The advantages this could lend to my golf swing/game might include: easy full rotation, high clubspeed because my swing arc is longer, and high loft on the ball from a steep swing plane. Disadvantages might include more margin for error and less distance. Now Darwin also says that those beneficial traits will be passed along to the next generation. Obviously, depending on what type of women I eventually (yikes) procreate with, maybe i can pass along the good golfing genes to my critters. The question is: Does the more golf i play effect the probobility of passing along such genes which help my game (golf survival )? It is an environment yes? Can one’s swing be genetically transferred as easily as one’s hair color? If not in one generation, how about over a few generations? Just wondering. just bored…. m
Response:
figured as much ; quelle bummer m – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -sorry no…..you cannot pass on "aquired" characteristics. You can only pass on whatever genetic potential you might have for athleticism. It doesn’t matter whether you play golf once a week, every day, or never, it will not affect which genes you pass to your offspring. To use your hair color example, if you dye your hair blonde it will not affect the chances or your passing along blonde hair genes to your children.
Response:
Not unless Lemark was right and Darwin was wrong. Lemark thought acquired traits could be passed on genetically. Another thought though. If you practice and become really good. You will probably like the game more and learn a lot about It’s intricacies and that might make you a better teacher to you future offspring. Jim H.
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Darwin via the monk Mendel talked about physical traits of a species which were advantagous to surviving in their environment. And every golfer has specific physical characteristics which help them ensure maximum survival in the hostile environment we call "courses." No two bodies are exactly alike. Personally, I’m tall and lanky with long arms. The advantages this could lend to my golf swing/game might include: easy full rotation, high clubspeed because my swing arc is longer, and high loft on the ball from a steep swing plane. Disadvantages might include more margin for error and less distance. Now Darwin also says that those beneficial traits will be passed along to the next generation. Obviously, depending on what type of women I eventually (yikes) procreate with, maybe i can pass along the good golfing genes to my critters. The question is: Does the more golf i play effect the probobility of passing along such genes which help my game (golf survival )? It is an environment yes? Can one’s swing be genetically transferred as easily as one’s hair color? If not in one generation, how about over a few generations? Just wondering. just bored…. m
Response:
The ends of chromosomes are called telomeres, and it’s true that most cells lack the capacity to maintain the ends of their chromosomes. But this is not true of the cells that make eggs and sperm, which have an enzyme called telomerase that replaces…
<rest of biotech info and its apparent lack of effect on my Norwegian heritage-laced swing snipped So…..do you guys inhale or exhale when starting your backswing????? :-) I’m sure glad that somebody knows this stuff! Wow! — Washington State University "That shot is impossible!…Jack Nicholson himself couldn’t make it!"– Homer Simpson
Response:
::: As we age our chromosone strands lose the ends called "talonomes" The more we age the more talonomes we lose. This accounts for while a DNA profiler will say for 99.9999995 % proof that, John or Jane Doe is the parant of baby Doe. Also it should mean two siblings born in a couples teen years will be more similar genetically, than a sibling born in the couples mid- life
The ends of chromosomes are called telomeres, and it’s true that most cells lack the capacity to maintain the ends of their chromosomes. But this is not true of the cells that make eggs and sperm, which have an enzyme called telomerase that replaces chromosome ends as they are lost. So the statement that closely-spaced (similar ages) children will be more alike than distantly spaced children is incorrect, since the couple’s eggs and sperm will not be subject to telomere shortening. Actually all of the woman’s eggs (several hundred) were present in her ovaries at the time of birth and don’t increase in number during her lifetime. Men make sperm throughout their reproductive lifetime. An activity or skill such as playing golf may alter the way the "talonomes" fall of the ends of the chromosone strands. If this was correct it would be possible for us to pass on acquired characteristics,
No, this is wrong. Or at least there is no evidence for it, and it is basically irrelevant because germ cells don’t have the telomere shortening problem. A spin off from this is also how the mitochondrial DNA from the maternal line may effect the equation if so, its definitly more probable that a female could pass on acquired charactertistics easier. Note : of the fruit fly’s 50 genes 32 come from mitochondrial DNA. That doesn’t give a dad much chance of passing on acquired characteristics does it.
It’s true that in most animals the offspring get most or all of their mitochondrial DNA from the mother. But the numbers stated above are way off: there are about 20,000 nuclear genes in fruit flies (males and females contribute these equally), and a handful of mitochondrial genes (I don’t know this number off-hand, but it’s less than 50. The number of nuclear genes in humans is more like 100,000-150,000, while the number of mitochondrial genes is similar to that in flies. So far as I’m aware there aren’t any human traits (strength, clubhead speed, height, intelligence, short-game skills, etc) that are affected by the mitochondrial genome. But I’m a fruit fly geneticist not a human geneticist, so I can’t be absolutely certain about this. I pesonally believe this idea of the tallonomes that are being lost being influenced by external factors will be disproved in a couple of years. Anyhow thats my post for the day
The loss of telomeres being influenced by external factors isn’t a part of mainstream biology so far as I know. Telomeres are lost are a consequence of a quirk of DNA replication during cell division. Ed Stephenson
Response:
Michael, the traditional genetic theories don’t agree with you. However there is also one newish postulation doing the rounds presently, that I’ll state for you as I can’t find anything else to post at this NG today. ::: As we age our chromosone strands lose the ends called "talonomes" The more we age the more talonomes we lose. This accounts for while a DNA profiler will say for 99.9999995 % proof that, John or Jane Doe is the parant of baby Doe. Also it should mean two siblings born in a couples teen years will be more similar genetically, than a sibling born in the couples mid- life An activity or skill such as playing golf may alter the way the "talonomes" fall of the ends of the chromosone strands. If this was correct it would be possible for us to pass on acquired characteristics, however it is more probable that any info acquired in this method would pertain to fighting virus’s and other health concerns. A spin off from this is also how the mitochondrial DNA from the maternal line may effect the equation if so, its definitly more probable that a female could pass on acquired charactertistics easier. Note : of the fruit fly’s 50 genes 32 come from mitochondrial DNA. That doesn’t give a dad much chance of passing on acquired characteristics does it. I pesonally believe this idea of the tallonomes that are being lost being influenced by external factors will be disproved in a couple of years. Anyhow thats my post for the day Regardz Colin Davies
Darwin via the monk Mendel talked about physical traits of a species which were advantagous to surviving in their
environment. And every golfer has specific physical characteristics which help them ensure maximum survival in the hostile environment we call "courses." No two bodies are exactly alike. Personally, I’m tall and lanky with long arms. The advantages this could lend to my golf swing/game might include: easy full rotation, high clubspeed because my
swing arc is longer, and high loft on the ball from a steep swing plane. Disadvantages might include more margin for error and less distance. Now Darwin also says that those beneficial traits
will be passed along to the next generation. Obviously, depending on what type of women I eventually (yikes) procreate with, maybe i can pass
along the good golfing genes to my critters. The question is: Does the more golf i play effect the probobility of
passing along such genes which help my game (golf survival )? It is an
environment yes? Can one’s swing be genetically transferred as easily as one’s
hair color? If not in – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -one generation, how about over a few generations? Just wondering. just bored…. m
Response:
Not unless Lemark was right and Darwin was wrong. Lemark thought acquired traits could be passed on genetically. Another thought though. If you practice and become really good. You will probably like the game more and learn a lot about it’s intricacies and that might make you a better teacher to you future offspring.
Another thought. Maybe it doesn’t matter too much whether the skill learning is actually genetic or environment. A lot of behaviour is learnt through modelling. If you develop really good golf skills, you model that behaviour better to your offspring, so they maybe have more chance of becoming good too. Then again, maybe you’ve also got the gene to pass on that allows your offspring to become good 
Cheers Colin Wilson RSG Roll Call – http://u1.netgate.net/~kirby34/rsg/wilsonc.htm Visit one of Australia’s best club web sites: Trentham Golf Club – http://publishing.kyneton.net.au/trentham