BioConcepts

genetic assimilationGenetische Assimilation (ger.)

• The process by which a phenotypic character initially produced only in response to some environmental influence becomes, through a process of selection, taken over by the genotype, so that it is formed even in the absence of the environmental influence that at first had been necessary. (Oxford Dict. of Genetics 2007)
  category modification

  1953

  genetic assimilation of an environmental effect

  Waddington, C.H. (1953). The evolution of adaptations. Endeavour 12, 134-139: 139; cf. id. (1953). Genetic assimilation of an acquired character. Evolution 7, 118-126; id. (1953). The »Baldwin effect«, »genetic assimilation« and »homeostasis«. Evolution 7, 386-387.

  1982

  genetic assimilation The reinforcement, byalteration in genetic material, of phenotypic modifications which themselves had no genetic basis.

  Lincoln, R.J., Boxshall, G.A. & Clark, P.F. (1982). A Dictionary of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics: 100.