Frozen Evolution. Or, that’s not the way it is, Mr. Darwin. A Farewell to Selfish Gene.

Even if genetic information is transferred from a somatic cell to a germinal cell, e.g. in animals through retroviruses, in plants by normal differentiation of somatic cells to germinal cells, an insurmountable barrier will exist in multicellular organisms that reliably prevents the functioning of Lamarckian evolution.This barrier consists in epigenetic processes occurring in ontogenesis (Dawkins 1976).

In contrast to single-cell organisms, in which most genes directly determine the appearance of a particular body structure, for example the molecule of a certain receptor incorporated in the cell membrane or flagellum, in multi-cellular organisms most genes only determine how the ontogenetic processes, that will create the given structure, will progress.This means that the information contained in the DNA does not describe the final structure of the body of the organism.Only the properties of the molecules, from which the body of the organism is finally constructed, are written in the DNA (and this true only for some molecules, as post-transcription and post-translation modifications belong amongst epigenetic processes), together with the rules according to which the developing embryo will initiate the individual epigenetic processes.Thus, the DNA cannot be compared to a set of plans for a building, where each line would correspond to a miniature picture of a structure in the actual building, but rather to a cooking recipe.If the structure of the actual building is altered under the influence of external factors, for example, the inhabitants brick up a window or build a partition, these changes can be drawn into the plans and, from that moment, all the buildings constructed according to the altered plans will be modified in the same way.In contrast, if we change the structure of a cake, for example, we cut off the corner, it is not possible to change the recipe for its preparation so that, in the future, all the cakes baked according to the recipe would be lacking a corner.An analogy of Darwinistic evolution can take place for a cake, the recipe can be changed at random, the baked cake tasted and, according to the results, the new or old version of the recipe can be thrown out.  Both Darwinistic evolution and Lamarckian evolution can occur for a building.We can change the plan and find out how satisfied the inhabitants are with the altered building, or we can change the finished building and if the inhabitants will be satisfied with the results, introduce the relevant changes in the plans.

Like every comparison, the analogy with a cooking recipe is not perfect.In actual fact, the genetic information tends to encode several alternative ontogenetic programs and simultaneously determines the manner in which the developing organism will react to morphogenetic signals from the internal and external environment.

As long as preformist concepts about ontogenesis prevailed, i.e. as long as biologists assumed that the gamete contains a miniature model of the adult organism, for example a miniature human being, in his gametes another ultra-miniature human being, etc., Lamarckian evolution could be considered to be possible, at least in principle.However, when it was found that the preformist concepts do not correspond to reality, that the gametes do not contain a model or plan but rather a recipe, instructions for construction and that the result of ontogenesis is determined by epigenetic processes, which are affected not only by genetic information, but also by information derived from the internal and external environment, it became apparent that acquired traits cannot be inherited in multicellular organisms.

            As has already been shown on the example of amplification of genes for dihydrofolate reductase, the situation is somewhat different for single-cell organisms.Here, there is no barrier between the lines of somatic and germinal cells and, in addition, a great many genes encode a certain structure directly and not only the process of its creation.