A focused, minimal experimental test of an epigenetic ratchet-like model of ageing

This manuscript presents a focused and minimal experimental framework to test a key prediction derived from a dual-code model of biological inheritance, in which phenotype arises from the interaction between a primary genetic code (DNA) and a secondary epigenetic code. Building on previously reported serendipitous observations in Schizosaccharomyces pombe, it is shown that self-cross spore survival is highly plastic and correlates with vegetative cell viability under specific environmental perturbations, such as freeze–thaw cycles and meiotic passage. These observations are not readily explained by models based solely on genetic variation. The manuscript proposes that these phenomena reflect the accumulation and transmission of epigenetic defects, consistent with a ratchet-like mechanism acting on a secondary code. A decisive and minimal experimental test is outlined: repeated freeze–thaw cycling of a clonal population, combined with parallel measurement of vegetative viability and self-cross spore survival. If both variables co-vary systematically, spore survival can be interpreted as a direct biomarker of cellular viability and, by extension, of ageing. The proposed experiment provides a direct and falsifiable challenge to single-code models of inheritance and an experimentally tractable route to test the role of epigenetic information in ageing. This version incorporates a clarification of the role of metastable epigenetic states in the proposed experimental framework. The author welcomes experimental validation and collaboration to test the proposed framework.