Too late for the midwife toad: stress, variability and Hsp90.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Waddington put forward his theories of canalization and genetic assimilation. These provided a genetic basis to account for the inheritance of some apparently 'acquired' characters. Rutherford and Lindquist have now provided a molecular framework for these theories. Their results are also relevant to observations from the 1950s concerning homozygosity and variability, with a bearing on current views concerning the use of inbred strains.
D000818:Animals; D014644:Genetic Variation; D018841:HSP90 Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D007178:Inbreeding; D008957:Models, Genetic; D018832:Molecular Chaperones / Q000235:genetics; D010641:Phenotype; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000235:genetics