Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Gonzalo Sabaris, Maximilian H. H. Fitz-James, Giacomo Cavalli
Summary: Increasing evidence suggests that environmental stress can trigger epigenetic signals that persist over long timeframes, leading to phenotypic changes and potential selection. Epigenetic inheritance plays a crucial role in rapid phenotypic adaptation to fluctuating environments, ensuring short-term survival while maintaining a bet-hedging strategy. These findings call for a reevaluation of the importance of nongenetic information in adaptive evolution and its broader relevance in nature.
ANNALS OF THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
(2023)
Review
Biology
Dragan Stajic, Lars E. T. Jansen
Summary: Heritable gene expression can facilitate adaptation by increasing survival in new environments and enlarging beneficial mutational targets. Additionally, epigenetic control of gene expression allows for stochastic switching between different phenotypes in populations, potentially facilitating adaptation in rapidly fluctuating environments.
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Review
Geriatrics & Gerontology
Mark T. Mc Auley
Summary: In the last decade, epigenetics has become a central discipline in the field of biogerontology, as age-associated epigenetic changes are linked to various pathologies and epigenetic clocks can correlate biological age with chronological age. Recent empirical observations also suggest that inherited epigenetic effects could influence lifespan/longevity in different organisms. This review critically evaluates these effects from an evolutionary perspective, aiming to integrate the evidence with the main evolutionary theories of ageing.
EXPERIMENTAL GERONTOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Sizhe Yuen, Thomas H. G. Ezard, Adam J. Sobey
Summary: Evolutionary computation is a set of biologically inspired algorithms used for solving complex optimization problems. This paper analyzes successful bioinspired algorithms under a contemporary biological framework based on the extended evolutionary synthesis. The analysis reveals a lack of exploration in epigenetic inheritance, leaving it as a potential area for further research within evolutionary computation.
ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE
(2023)
Editorial Material
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Saifeng Cheng, Yoav Mayshar, Yonatan Stelzer
Summary: In this study, Takahashi and colleagues demonstrate that induced DNA methylation at specific genes can lead to stable transgenerational inheritance of epigenetic changes and associated phenotypes in mice.
Article
Plant Sciences
Narendra Singh Yadav, Viktor Titov, Ivie Ayemere, Boseon Byeon, Yaroslav Ilnytskyy, Igor Kovalchuk
Summary: Plants can adapt to environmental stress not only through physiological changes but also through genetic and epigenetic alterations. The study on multigenerational heat stress in Arabidopsis thaliana revealed that the stressed progeny exhibited higher heat tolerance, genetic mutations, and epigenetic changes, highlighting the importance of adaptation mechanisms over generations.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2022)
Editorial Material
Plant Sciences
Mar Sobral, Luis Sampedro
Summary: Plant plastic responses to environmental variation at scales smaller than the individual plant size promote phenotypic and epigenetic diversity within genotypes, potentially influencing plant evolutionary dynamics.
TRENDS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2022)
Review
Biology
Francesc Piferrer
Summary: Epigenetic mechanisms play vital roles in vertebrate sex determination, not only within individuals in a generation, but also potentially across generations to facilitate the transition of sexual systems. The article presents examples supporting these points and suggests possible ways to test this hypothesis.
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Review
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Barbara Hanfstingl, Ana Arzensek, Jan Apschner, Katharina Ingrid Goelly
Summary: This research provides a systematic overview of psychological areas using assimilation and accommodation for explaining development and adaptation processes from 1998 to 2018. The study identified white spots on the research map that need to be focused on in future work, such as better understanding the interdependence and synchronicity of the processes, connection to affects and emotions, and potential co-research with artificial intelligence. The work of Baldwin and Piaget influenced practically all views in psychological research on assimilation and accommodation.
EUROPEAN PSYCHOLOGIST
(2022)
Review
Environmental Sciences
Jiezhang Mo, Doris Wai-Ting Au, Jiahua Guo, Christoph Winkler, Richard Yuen-Chong Kong, Frauke Seemann
Summary: Research indicates that environmental exposure to benzo[a]pyrene may cause osteotoxicity, which could be transgenerationally inherited. Genetic and epigenetic factors play important roles in regulating bone metabolism, and researchers propose two possible epigenetic regulatory circuits in relation to bone miRNAs and genes.
CRITICAL REVIEWS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
(2022)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Simeiyun Liu, Upasna Sharma
Summary: There is increasing evidence that the experiences and environment of ancestors can affect the phenotypes of future generations. The parental environment may regulate offspring phenotypes by influencing epigenetic marks in the gametes. This review examines the inheritance of paternal environmental effects and the role of small RNAs in this process. Recent advances in understanding the small RNA payload of sperm and how it is modulated by environmental conditions are discussed, as well as the potential mechanism of paternal environmental effects through small RNA-mediated regulation of early embryonic gene expression and its impact on offspring phenotypes.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Biology
Morgan M. Sparks, Joshua C. Kraft, Kliffi M. S. Blackstone, Gordon G. McNickle, Mark R. Christie
Summary: This study systematically documents the magnitude and drivers of the genetic effect in environmentally covarying local adaptation, revealing the pervasiveness and large genetic effects underlying this adaptation in wild populations. The study also identifies temperature and gamete size as the covariates with the largest mean effects.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Jeannie M. Mounger, Isolde van Riemsdijk, M. Teresa Boquete, Cornelis A. M. Wagemaker, Samar Fatma, Marta H. Robertson, Sandy A. Voors, Jenna Oberstaller, Fleur Gawehns, Torrance C. Hanley, Ivo Grosse, Koen J. F. Verhoeven, Erik E. Sotka, Catherine A. Gehring, A. Randall Hughes, David B. Lewis, Marc W. Schmid, Christina L. Richards
Summary: By analyzing genetic and epigenetic variation in natural populations of Spartina alterniflora, researchers found that both source population and habitat played a role in explaining genetic and epigenetic diversity, and that DNA methylation distinctly contributed to plant responses in natural populations.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Ling Zeng, Mei Wang, Jinzhao Zhou, Xiaofei Wang, Yanwei Zhang, Ping Su
Summary: The interaction between gametic epigenetic marks and retrotransposons plays a crucial role in the transmission of parental acquired traits during early embryonic development.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Joanna L. Kelley, Michael Tobler, Daniel Beck, Ingrid Sadler-Riggleman, Corey R. Quackenbush, Lenin Arias Rodriguez, Michael K. Skinner
Summary: The study suggests that the adaptation of P. mexicana to sulfidic environments in southern Mexico may be partially promoted through stable, generational inheritance of epigenetic DNA methylation alterations that are independent of the environment. The epigenetic changes were related to sulfur toxicity and metabolic processes.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)