Editing Lysenkoism (section)

===Lysenko's claims===

[[File:Trofim Lysenko portrait.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Lysenko in 1938]]

In 1928, rejecting [[natural selection]] and [[Mendelian genetics]], [[Trofim Lysenko]] claimed to have developed agricultural techniques which could radically increase crop yields. These included [[vernalization]], species transformation (one species turning into another), [[inheritance of acquired characteristics]], and vegetative hybridization (see below).<ref name="Leone 1952">{{cite journal |last1=Leone |first1=Charles A. |title=Genetics: Lysenko versus Mendel |journal=Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science |volume=55 |issue=4 |year=1952 |pages=369–380 |issn=0022-8443 |doi=10.2307/3625986 |jstor=3625986}}</ref> He claimed in particular that vernalization, exposing [[wheat]] seeds to humidity and low temperature, could greatly increase [[crop yield]]. He claimed further that he could transform one [[species]], ''[[Triticum durum]]'' (durum spring wheat), into ''[[Triticum vulgare]]'' (common autumn wheat), through 2 to 4 years of autumn planting. This species transition he claimed to occur without an intermediate form.<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal |last=Dobzhansky |first=Theodosius |date=February 1952 |title=I Lysenko's "Michurinist" Genetics |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00963402.1952.11457270 |journal=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists |language=en |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=40–44 |doi=10.1080/00963402.1952.11457270 |bibcode=1952BuAtS...8b..40D |issn=0096-3402|url-access=subscription }}</ref> However, this was already known to be impossible since ''T. durum'' is a [[tetraploid]] with 28 chromosomes (4 sets of 7), while ''T. vulgare'' is [[hexaploid]] with 42 chromosomes (6 sets).<ref name="Leone 1952"/> This objection did not faze Lysenko, as he claimed that the chromosome number changed as well.<ref name=":7" />

Lysenko claimed that the concept of a gene was a "bourgeois invention", and he denied the presence of any "immortal substance of heredity" or "clearly defined species", which he claimed belong to [[Theory of forms|Platonic]] metaphysics rather than strictly materialist Marxist science. Instead, he proposed a "Marxist genetics" postulating an unlimited possibility of transformation of living organisms through environmental changes in the spirit of Marxian [[Dialectical materialism|dialectical transformation]], and in parallel to the Party's program of creating the [[New Soviet man|New Soviet Man]] and subduing nature for his benefit. Lysenko refused to admit [[Evolution|random mutations]], stating that "science is the enemy of randomness".<ref name=":4">{{cite book |last=Kolakowski |first=Leszek |title=[[Main Currents of Marxism]] |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |year=2005 |isbn=978-0393329438}}</ref>

[[File:Lysenkoist Vegetative Hybridisation.svg|thumb|Lysenkoist ''vegetative hybridisation'' implying an effect of scion on stock  when a fruit tree is [[Grafting|grafted]]. Lysenko's Lamarckian conception is very weakly justified by the modern theory of [[horizontal gene transfer]].<ref name="LiuLi2009"/>]]

Lysenko further claimed that Lamarckian inheritance of acquired characteristics occurred in plants,<!--''Soviet Biology'', 1948, page 36--> as in the "eyes" of potato [[tuber]]s, though the genetic differences in these plant parts were already known to be non-heritable [[somatic mutation]]s.<ref name="Leone 1952"/><ref name="Asseyeva 1927">{{cite journal |last1=Asseyeva |first1=T. |title=Bud mutations in the potato and their chimerical nature |journal=Journal of Genetics |date=1927 |volume=19 |pages=1–28 |doi=10.1007/BF02983115 |s2cid=6762283 |url=https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2FBF02983115.pdf}}</ref> He also claimed that when a tree is [[Grafting|graft]]ed, the [[Scion (grafting)|scion]] permanently changes the heritable characteristics of the [[Stock (grafting)|stock]]. In modern biological theory, such a change is theoretically possible through [[horizontal gene transfer]]; however, there is no evidence that this actually occurs, and Lysenko rejected the mechanism of genes entirely.<ref name="LiuLi2009"/>