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150 years of Darwin’s theory of intercellular flow of hereditary information

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 19, pages 749–750 (2018)Cite this article

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In 1868, Charles Darwin published his Pangenesis theory, which proposed a mechanism for the flow of hereditary information between cells and generations. Pangenesis has since been disputed, but emerging evidence of cell-to-cell communication urges the reconsideration of this 150-year-old theory.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank R. M. Roberts for constructive comments and members of the Chen laboratory for discussions. Research in the Chen laboratory is supported by the NIH (R01HD092431).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Henan Collaborative Innovation Center of Modern Biological Breeding, Henan Institute of Science and Technology, Xinxiang, China

    Yongsheng Liu

  2. Department of Biochemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

    Yongsheng Liu

  3. Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, Reno, NV, USA

    Qi Chen

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  1. Yongsheng Liu
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  2. Qi Chen
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Correspondence to Qi Chen.

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Liu, Y., Chen, Q. 150 years of Darwin’s theory of intercellular flow of hereditary information. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 19, 749–750 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-018-0072-4

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