What Do You Mean, “Epigenetic”?

Deans, Carrie; Maggert, Keith A.

doi:10.1534/genetics.114.173492

Cited by 427 publications

(200 citation statements)

References 112 publications

(135 reference statements)

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“…Several situations that are sometimes regarded as epigenetic inheritance do not involve transmission of informational macromolecules across generations, so that part of the controversy about the importance of epigenetic inheritance is semantic [26]. Here, we exclude phenomena such as direct effects of parental condition on the offspring in organisms like mammals, and maternal effects mediated through provisioning of the egg cytoplasm.…”

Section: (B) Epigenetic Inheritance Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The sources of adaptive variation

2017

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The role of natural selection in the evolution of adaptive phenotypes has undergone constant probing by evolutionary biologists, employing both theoretical and empirical approaches. As Darwin noted, natural selection can act together with other processes, including random changes in the frequencies of phenotypic differences that are not under strong selection, and changes in the environment, which may reflect evolutionary changes in the organisms themselves. As understanding of genetics developed after 1900, the new genetic discoveries were incorporated into evolutionary biology. The resulting general principles were summarized by Julian Huxley in his 1942 book Evolution: the modern synthesis . Here, we examine how recent advances in genetics, developmental biology and molecular biology, including epigenetics, relate to today's understanding of the evolution of adaptations. We illustrate how careful genetic studies have repeatedly shown that apparently puzzling results in a wide diversity of organisms involve processes that are consistent with neo-Darwinism. They do not support important roles in adaptation for processes such as directed mutation or the inheritance of acquired characters, and therefore no radical revision of our understanding of the mechanism of adaptive evolution is needed.

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Section: (B) Epigenetic Inheritance Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The sources of adaptive variation

2017

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“…Epigenetic mechanisms have been of interest in evolutionary biology (Richards et al, 2010;Zhang et al, 2013;Deans and Maggert, 2015), in the field of development (Beldade et al, 2011), and in such specialized fields as ecotoxicology (Vandegehuchte and Janssen, 2014). Historically, the research community has debated how to exactly define epigenetics (Deans and Maggert, 2015).…”

Section: Epigenetics-a Brief Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Historically, the research community has debated how to exactly define epigenetics (Deans and Maggert, 2015). Depending on the perspective of the investigator, a range of potential mechanisms are recognized, including covalent modifications of histones (Bannister and Kouzarides, 2011), DNA methylation (Bird, 2002), and gene regulation by a variety of non-coding RNAs (Jiao and Slack, 2014).…”

Section: Epigenetics-a Brief Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…DNA methylation was one of the first epigenetic modifications of DNA to be discovered (Bird, 2002;Deans and Maggert, 2015) and has been the subject of extensive studies in numerous systems. This epigenetic mark (sensu Feng et al, 2010) has increasingly been the focus of studies in ecological epigenetics in non-model systems and plants (Schrey et al, 2013;Bonasio, 2015;Metzger and Schulte, 2016;Verhoeven et al, 2016) and increasingly in marine metazoans.…”

Section: Dna Methylationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For this horizon scan, I will use the definition of epigenetics (sensu Deans and Maggert, 2015), that is "the study of phenomena and mechanisms that cause chromosome-bound, heritable changes to gene expression that are not dependent on changes to DNA sequence" (Deans and Maggert, 2015). In order to focus the discussion, this horizon scan will highlight studies that examined changes in DNA methylation, a covalent modification of genomic DNA.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Ecological Epigenetics in Marine Metazoans

Hofmann

2017

Front. Mar. Sci.

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In this horizon scan article, I review the emerging area of ecological epigenetics in marine animals with studies of DNA methylation as the primary focus. Epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation have the capacity to create rapid changes in phenotypic plasticity. Epigenetic modifications of DNA are mechanisms that modify gene expression, and may do so in marine animals in an environmentally-induced manner. Thus, changes in the transcriptome that are driven by DNA methylation in response to environmental change may be one process by which marine animals can respond to anthropogenic, environmental change. From a technical standpoint, assays to quantify levels of DNA methylation, and next-generation sequencing approaches are opening up new avenues of exploration, such as simultaneously profiling the transcriptome and the methylome. A horizon scan for this topic suggests that the use of epigenomics and other methods to quantify DNA methylation will likely reveal important mechanisms of response to rapid environmental change in marine metazoans.

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Epigenetic Regulation of Gene Expression

Murison

Michod

2020

Encyclopedia of Life Sciences

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The phenomenon of genes being regulated by factors and marks that do not change the underlying DNA code demonstrates the complexity inherited in genomic regulation. The exact definition of epigenetics has developed from its theoretical proposal to focus on the physical mechanism which transmits epigenetic information. This in turn has led to some controversies about how widely the definition should be applied. Repressive epigenetic marks, DNA methylation, Polycomb complex regulation by H3K27Me3 and heterochromatin protein 1 recruitment to H3K9Me3 will be the mechanisms we mainly focus on due to their robust heritability across the cell cycle. Epigenetic marks often work through changing gene expression, but it is important to note that this is not the only way they can work. Key Concepts Epigenetic mechanisms allow cells to acquire specific phenotypes without involving changes to the DNA sequence. Epigenetic mark must not alter the underlying DNA sequence and should lead to changes in gene expression without the need to read the underlying sequence. The main epigenetic mechanisms are DNA methylation, histone modifications and expression of noncoding RNAs. Disruption to epigenetic mechanism or mistargeting of a mark can result in phenotypic change and ultimately diease. The term epigenetics has developed to describe multiple mechanisms, sometimes inaccurately, which are heritable across cell division.

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What Do You Mean, “Epigenetic”?

Cited by 427 publications

References 112 publications

The sources of adaptive variation

The sources of adaptive variation

Ecological Epigenetics in Marine Metazoans

Epigenetic Regulation of Gene Expression

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