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Three epigenetic information channels and their different roles in evolution
Article first published online: 19 APR 2011
DOI: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02235.x
© 2011 The Authors. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2011 European Society For Evolutionary Biology
Additional Information
How to Cite
SHEA, N., PEN, I. and ULLER, T. (2011), Three epigenetic information channels and their different roles in evolution. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 24: 1178–1187. doi: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02235.x
Publication History
- Issue published online: 6 MAY 2011
- Article first published online: 19 APR 2011
- Received 14 September 2010; revised 8 January 2011; accepted 13 January 2011
Keywords:
- epigenetic inheritance;
- inherited information;
- maternal effects;
- nongenetic inheritance;
- transgenerational plasticity
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.