The new genetics .. Road Map not Blueprint - Page 1

For the last few generations born and schooled after the discovery and science of DNA was part of daily life the general scientific thinking was that DNA is a blue print for life.  Generally DNA was seen as a copying and duplicating process by which organisms reproduced and made copies of their species.  Now however we are finding that the earlier interpretation of genetic inheritance (including Mendelian inheritance) is flawed.  Attached below is a short article on the human genome and the Neanderthal.  Parts of this explanation are flawed but in general it is a very good and insightful approach to explaining how large differences in almost identical organisms exist because of environment and what is now called epigenetics.  If you imagine that instead of talking about modern humans and Neaderthals the paper is referencing various dog breeds, grey wolves, and how puppies from the same litter or same parentage can differ so much then the point is understood as to why I posted the reference here.  Food or nutrients which we once thought of as simply fuel for the organism may function in other ways causing genes to be switched on or off in the womb, shortly after birth, and lifelong whether we be human or canine.

http://news.yahoo.com/brutish-short-dna-switch-sheds-light-neanderthals-180250378.html

More links to epigenetics .. human studies mostly but we are all mammals as they say and dogs are often used to model humans in medical studies.

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/epigenetics/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/epigenetics.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3042783/