Telegony (pregnancy)

The concept of telegony (from gr τηλε tēle " far" and γόνος Gono's " descendants " ) refers to a now discarded theory of heredity that was popular until the 19th century and is related to Lamarckism. It says that a previously previous pregnancy can affect the phenotype of offspring from subsequent pregnancies. Telegony applies in scientific genetics ever since the rediscovery of Mendel's laws in 1900 as obsolete. In animal breeding, the belief in them still partly holds to this day.

History

The telegony goes back to Aristotle as a theory and has not been made until the late 19th century as a phenomenon in question; so for example, Charles Darwin went out of their existence. He cited in particular the case of Lord Morton's Mare, a brown Arabian mare that was covered by a Quaggahengst and is said to have born in the consequence also in its further pregnancies foals with Zebrastreifung. The existence of telegony was first made by August Weismann through the germ plasm theory in question, and a series of experiments by James Cossar Ewart could not reproduce the phenomenon at another horse mare. From today's perspective, it was at the Zebrastreifung the foal of Lord Morton's mare believed to be a recessive trait.

Today is still occasionally encountered the idea in animal breeding, that a pure breed female, which would be covered by a male animal of a different breed or a mixed breed, as a result, could never produce more pure-bred offspring. This idea can be scientifically no longer hold.