中国科学家重要发现拓展达尔文进化论框架

Core Viewpoint - A recent discovery by a research team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences provides significant evidence supporting Lamarck's theory of evolution, challenging the long-standing dominance of Darwin's natural selection theory [1][5]. Group 1: Evolutionary Theories - Darwin's theory posits that evolution is a long and harsh "lottery," where random genetic mutations create differences that are then selected by the environment, encapsulated in the phrase "survival of the fittest" [3]. - In contrast, Lamarck's theory suggests that organisms can actively change in response to environmental pressures, and these acquired traits can be passed on to future generations [3][5]. Group 2: Key Findings - The research team discovered that rice plants, when moved from warmer southern regions to the colder northeast, developed increased cold resistance, which could be inherited by their offspring [5][7]. - Initially, scientists suspected that genetic mutations were responsible for this cold resistance, but they found that the genes of the rice plants did not change [5][7]. Group 3: Mechanism of Inheritance - The study revealed that southern rice plants possessed inherent cold-resistant genes that were "locked" by specific chemical groups in a warm environment, akin to sealing a genetic capability [7]. - When exposed to cold conditions, the persistent environmental pressure caused the rice plants to "unlock" these genes, allowing them to exhibit cold resistance and pass this trait on to their descendants [7][9]. Group 4: Implications for Evolution - The findings bridge the gap between Darwin's natural selection and Lamarck's acquired inheritance, suggesting that evolution is influenced not only by random genetic variations but also by environmental pressures that can trigger and select epigenetic changes [9].