Somatoplasm
Full definition of somatoplasm
Noun
somatoplasm
(countable and uncountable; plural somatoplasms)- The protoplasm of somatic cells.
- 1936, Robert William Hegner, College Zoology, MacMillan, page 638,The arcs represent the somatoplasms of four individuals.
- 2008, Paul S. Agutter, Denys N. Wheatley, Thinking about Life, Springer, page 179,HeWeismann proposed a one-way relationship between the hereditary material contained in the gametes (the germ-plasm) and the rest of the body (the somatoplasm). He recognised that the germ-plasm is continuous from generation to generation. In each generation it is responsible for forming the somatoplasm. Crucially, however, the somatoplasm does not influence the germ-plasm.
- 2012, Stanley Shostak, Becoming Immortal: Combining Cloning and Stem-Cell Therapy, SUNY Press, page 23,As dazzling as biology's accomplishments are in making sense of genes, biologists are still bewildered by the immortality of germplasm and the mortality of somatoplasm. Indeed, the problem of immortality would disappear if the situation were reversed and, instead of germplasm, somatoplasm were immortal. Why are germ- and somatoplasm different in this crucial respect?Weismann had proposed the existence of different germ- and somatoplasms in order to explain the results of experiments intended to test the Lamarckian principle of the "inheritance of acquired characteristics."
Usage notes
The term relates to the obsolete germ plasm theory (Keimplasmatheorie), described in 1892 by German biologist August Weismann. Through his theory he rejected Lamarckism and proposed what came to be called the Weismann barrier: the principle that germ cells can influence somatic cells but not vice versa. Weismann's theory was made obsolete by genetics, but the idea that changes acquired during an organism's life cannot affect its offspring is still broadly accepted.