How is epigenetics predicted to contribute to climate change adaptation? What evidence do we need?

K McGuigan; AA Hoffmann; CM Sgrò

Journal article

How is epigenetics predicted to contribute to climate change adaptation? What evidence do we need?

K McGuigan, AA Hoffmann, CM Sgrò

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences | Published : 2021

DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0119

Abstract

Transgenerational effects that are interpreted in terms of epigenetics have become an important research focus at a time when rapid environmental changes are occurring. These effects are usually interpreted as enhancing fitness extremely rapidly, without depending on the slower process of natural selection changing DNA-encoded (fixed) genetic variants in populations. Supporting evidence comes from a variety of sources, including environmental associations with epialleles, cross-generation responses of clonal material exposed to different environmental conditions, and altered patterns of methylation or frequency changes in epialleles across time. Transgenerational environmental effects have b..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Ary Hoffmann Author

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Grants

Funding Acknowledgements

This work was supported by funding from the Australian Research Council through their Discovery Project scheme (K.M., A.A.H. and C.M.S.) and the National Health and Medical Research Council Fellowship scheme (A.A.H.).