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Re:RNA Memory Hypothesis by aj3 on Thursday February 04, 2021 @05:44AM (#26024310)
WTF is "generational memory"?
Re:RNA Memory Hypothesis by macawfish on Thursday February 04, 2021 @10:57AM (#26026459)
A lot of biologists these days use "generational memory" to refer to epigenetic configurations that are heritable, but in the context of my comment I was using it more to refer generally to information that is typically modified over multigenerational timescales. My point was to frame RNA as a kind of intermediary between longer term and shorter term mediums of memory.

So as an simplified analogy, the DNA would be like a dictionary of common words that could be used to encode a meaningful story about something the organism has experienced. The RNA would be like the handwritten copy of each word as the story is written down on a piece of paper. The paper with the handwritten story is analogous to the proteins that have been shown numerous times to be involved in long term memory storage and recall.

Re:RNA Memory Hypothesis by dekhn on Thursday February 04, 2021 @10:49AM (#26026349)
the idea would be that learned behavior which is not genetically encoded is instead passed down in the form of specifically structured information molecules.