Three epigenetic information channels and their different roles in evolution
(2011) In Journal of evolutionary biology 24(6). p.1178-1187- Abstract
- There is increasing evidence for epigenetically mediated transgenerational inheritance across taxa. However, the evolutionary implications of such alternative mechanisms of inheritance remain unclear. Herein, we show that epigenetic mechanisms can serve two fundamentally different functions in transgenerational inheritance: (i) selection-based effects, which carry adaptive information in virtue of selection over many generations of reliable transmission; and (ii) detection-based effects, which are a transgenerational form of adaptive phenotypic plasticity. The two functions interact differently with a third form of epigenetic information transmission, namely information about cell state transmitted for somatic cell heredity in... (More)
- There is increasing evidence for epigenetically mediated transgenerational inheritance across taxa. However, the evolutionary implications of such alternative mechanisms of inheritance remain unclear. Herein, we show that epigenetic mechanisms can serve two fundamentally different functions in transgenerational inheritance: (i) selection-based effects, which carry adaptive information in virtue of selection over many generations of reliable transmission; and (ii) detection-based effects, which are a transgenerational form of adaptive phenotypic plasticity. The two functions interact differently with a third form of epigenetic information transmission, namely information about cell state transmitted for somatic cell heredity in multicellular organisms. Selection-based epigenetic information is more likely to conflict with somatic cell inheritance than is detection-based epigenetic information. Consequently, the evolutionary implications of epigenetic mechanisms are different for unicellular and multicellular organisms, which underscores the conceptual and empirical importance of distinguishing between these two different forms of transgenerational epigenetic effect. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4739061
- author
- Shea, Nicholas ; Pen, Ido and Uller, Tobias LU
- publishing date
- 2011
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Journal of evolutionary biology
- volume
- 24
- issue
- 6
- pages
- 1178 - 1187
- publisher
- John Wiley & Sons Inc.
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:21504495
- scopus:79955674909
- ISSN
- 1420-9101
- DOI
- 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02235.x
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- 9c780ad0-33ef-4fa6-a9a0-5b46279ac0cd (old id 4739061)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 09:50:49
- date last changed
- 2022-03-19 06:46:01
@article{9c780ad0-33ef-4fa6-a9a0-5b46279ac0cd,
abstract = {{There is increasing evidence for epigenetically mediated transgenerational inheritance across taxa. However, the evolutionary implications of such alternative mechanisms of inheritance remain unclear. Herein, we show that epigenetic mechanisms can serve two fundamentally different functions in transgenerational inheritance: (i) selection-based effects, which carry adaptive information in virtue of selection over many generations of reliable transmission; and (ii) detection-based effects, which are a transgenerational form of adaptive phenotypic plasticity. The two functions interact differently with a third form of epigenetic information transmission, namely information about cell state transmitted for somatic cell heredity in multicellular organisms. Selection-based epigenetic information is more likely to conflict with somatic cell inheritance than is detection-based epigenetic information. Consequently, the evolutionary implications of epigenetic mechanisms are different for unicellular and multicellular organisms, which underscores the conceptual and empirical importance of distinguishing between these two different forms of transgenerational epigenetic effect.}},
author = {{Shea, Nicholas and Pen, Ido and Uller, Tobias}},
issn = {{1420-9101}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{6}},
pages = {{1178--1187}},
publisher = {{John Wiley & Sons Inc.}},
series = {{Journal of evolutionary biology}},
title = {{Three epigenetic information channels and their different roles in evolution}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02235.x}},
doi = {{10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02235.x}},
volume = {{24}},
year = {{2011}},
}