Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index

Weismann Barrier

The Weismann barrier is the principle that hereditary information moves only from genes to body cells and not vice versa.

The work of 19th century biologist August Weismann was done before genetics as a science existed. However, the principle is still held to be true by many. In order to disprove this principle, the mechanism used to get the genetic information into the germline has to be shown.