pangenesis
/pænˈdʒɛnəsɪs/
noun
- A discredited scientific theory that every part of an organism produces tiny particles (gemmules) that are passed to offspring, carrying hereditary information from all parts of the body.
- Pangenesis was later replaced by modern genetics and the discovery of DNA.
- In biology class, we learned that pangenesis was an early attempt to understand heredity.
- Charles Darwin proposed pangenesis to explain how traits are inherited from parents.