Pangeneses

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Plural of the hypothetical theory of heredity proposed by Charles Darwin, in which body cells release tiny particles that carry inherited traits
2. Darwin's speculative accounts of inheritance, each holding that particles called gemmules gather from the body's cells and pass traits to offspring
3. Several versions of the nineteenth-century hypothesis that heredity works through gemmules shed by the cells of the body and collected in reproductive organs

Etymology: Pangeneses is the plural of pangenesis, a rare noun formed from the Greek "pan," meaning "all," and "genesis," meaning "origin" or "birth." The plural is used when several such hypotheses are discussed together. The best-known pangenesis was Charles Darwin's provisional theory of heredity. He proposed that tiny particles, which he called gemmules, were released from every part of the body and gathered in the reproductive cells, carrying traits to offspring. Darwin offered it as a speculative hypothesis, and it was later set aside as particulate theories of inheritance and Mendelian genetics developed.