NoN-GeNetic iNheritaNce

Abstract David W. Pfennig*, Inheritance is crucial to the evolutionary process. Although most Maria R. Servedio evolutionary biologists assume that inheritance occurs exclusively through changes in DNA base sequence, it has long been known that inheritance can also occur through epigenetic mechanisms, such as chromatin Department of Biology, marking, maternal effects, parasite transmission, or learning. In recent University of North Carolina, years, the possibility that such transgenerational epigenetic inheritance Chapel Hill, NC, USA mechanisms can mediate long-term evolutionary change has received increased attention. Here, we consider the potential contribution of . As we describe, a growing body of theoretical and empirical studies suggests that epigenetic inheritance can accelerate the likelihood that genetic change will occur and thereby facilitate speciation. Additionally, inherited environmental or learned effects, completely independent of any changes in DNA base sequence. Generally, clarifying whether (and speciation remains a key frontier of .

Keywords

Received 30 May 2013 © 2013 David W. Pfennig et al., licensee Versita Sp. z o. o. Accepted 21 July 2013 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/), which means that the text may be used for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author.

sensu Epigenetic effects Inheritance Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance: a challenge Isolating mechanism for evolutionary biology sensu 1.1 The importance of inheritance for 5 Speciation Species sensu Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance

* E-mail: [email protected]

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Reproduction; inheritance Variability Struggle for Life genetic inheritance is a prerequisite mechanism of th inherited these acquired changes were then inherited by the individual’s offspring all th genetic expression genetic 1.2 Forms of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance between

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reduced Wolbachia propagated in the absence of any changes in DNA sequence Linaria vulgaris ] or 55 The possible role of epigenetic inheritance in Gryllus pennsylvanicus

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inheritance 2.2 How epigenetic inheritance may facilitate occurs indirectly genetic rapidly genetic directly an alternative inheritance system on which evolution can unfold indirectly by itself

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as Wolbachia S. multiplicata S. bombifrons S. multiplicata S. multiplicata S. multiplicata S. multiplicata Spea multiplicata S. bombifrons S. multiplicata S. bombifrons S. bombifrons

Figure 1.

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such that S. multiplicata S. bombifrons genetically based inherited S. multiplicata Vidua

Figure 2. An experimental demonstration of how the learning of mate preferences from a parent may promote reproductive isolation. This particular

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Box 1. Suggestions for future research to compare directly alone natural indirectlydirectly epigenetic drift

References

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