The soft genome

Anava, Sarit; Posner, Rachel; Rechavi, Oded

doi:10.4161/21624054.2014.989798

Cited by 17 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 58 publications

(62 reference statements)

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“…Epigenetic changes can arise in the F1 embryos that are present inside the parents when the parental animals are exposed to environmental stimuli. These phenomena can be called as parental effects or intergenerational epigenetic inheritance (Anava et al, 2014;Heard and Martienssen, 2014;Houri-Zeevi and Rechavi, 2017). The epigenetic changes that are inherited and maintained for more than two or three generations are then called transgenerational inheritance.…”

Section: Wago-4 Promotes Rnai Inheritancementioning

confidence: 99%

A cytoplasmic Argonaute protein promotes the inheritance of RNAi

Feng

Chen

et al. 2017

Preprint

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Abstract:RNAi-elicited gene silencing is heritable and can persist for multiple generations after its initial induction in C. elegans. However, the mechanism by which parentalacquired trait-specific information from RNAi is inherited by the progenies is not fully understood. Here, we identified a cytoplasmic Argonaute protein, WAGO-4, necessary for the inheritance of RNAi. WAGO-4 exhibits asymmetrical translocation to the germline during early embryogenesis, accumulates at the perinuclear foci in the germline, and is required for the inheritance of exogenous RNAi targeting both germline-and soma-expressed genes. WAGO-4 binds to 22G-RNA and its mRNA targets. Interestingly, WAGO-4-associated endogenous 22G-RNA targets the same cohort of germline genes as CSR-1 and similarly contains untemplated addition of uracil at the 3' ends. The poly(U) polymerase CDE-1 is required for the untemplated polyuridylation of WAGO-4-associated 22G-RNAs and inheritance of RNAi.Therefore, we conclude that cytoplasmic Argonaute proteins also promote the inheritance of RNAi in addition to the nuclear RNAi pathway.

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Section: Wago-4 Promotes Rnai Inheritancementioning

confidence: 99%

A cytoplasmic Argonaute protein promotes the inheritance of RNAi

Feng

Chen

et al. 2017

Preprint

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“…In comparison with Mendelian inheritance, which entails faithful transmission of discrete packets of information which do not blend or dilute [1], heritable epigenetic data are 'soft', or 'fluid', as they change as a function of time, and in response to physiological processes [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inter-generational consequences for growing Caenorhabditis elegans in liquid

Lev

Bril

Liu

et al. 2019

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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In recent years, studies in Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes have shown that different stresses can generate multigenerational changes. Here, we show that worms that grow in liquid media, and also their plate-grown progeny, are different from worms whose ancestors were grown on plates. It has been suggested that C. elegans might encounter liquid environments in nature, although actual observations in the wild are few and far between. By contrast, in the laboratory, growing worms in liquid is commonplace, and often used as an alternative to growing worms on agar plates, to control the composition of the worms' diet, to starve (and synchronize) worms or to grow large populations for biochemical assays. We found that plate-grown descendants of M9 liquid medium-grown worms were longer than control worms, and the heritable effects were already apparent very early in development. We tested for the involvement of different known epigenetic inheritance mechanisms, but could not find a single mutant in which these inter-generational effects are cancelled. While we found that growing in liquid always leads to inter-generational changes in the worms’ size, trans-generational effects were found to be variable, and in some cases, the effects were gone after one to two generations. These results demonstrate that standard cultivation conditions in early life can dramatically change the worms' physiology in adulthood, and can also affect the next generations. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Developing differences: early-life effects and evolutionary medicine’.

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“…Consequently, a swirling evolutionary discourse (in fact, a controversy) has developed about modern evolutionary theory and the need for new, extended or rehashed evolutionary synthesis. A key part of that discourse is how transgenerational epigenetics factors into inheritance and evolution, with emerging concepts and terms, such as “soft inheritance”, “soft genome”, “cell memory”, “epigenetic marks” and “cultural transmission” being inserted into more traditional evolutionary theory, as represented by the modern synthesis [ 18 , 90 , 91 , 92 , 93 , 94 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 98 , 99 , 100 , 101 , 102 , 103 , 104 , 105 , 106 , 107 , 108 , 109 ].…”

Section: A Role For Epigenetics In Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epigenetic Inheritance and Its Role in Evolutionary Biology: Re-Evaluation and New Perspectives

Burggren

2016

Biology

156

133

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Epigenetics increasingly occupies a pivotal position in our understanding of inheritance, natural selection and, perhaps, even evolution. A survey of the PubMed database, however, reveals that the great majority (>93%) of epigenetic papers have an intra-, rather than an inter-generational focus, primarily on mechanisms and disease. Approximately ~1% of epigenetic papers even mention the nexus of epigenetics, natural selection and evolution. Yet, when environments are dynamic (e.g., climate change effects), there may be an “epigenetic advantage” to phenotypic switching by epigenetic inheritance, rather than by gene mutation. An epigenetically-inherited trait can arise simultaneously in many individuals, as opposed to a single individual with a gene mutation. Moreover, a transient epigenetically-modified phenotype can be quickly “sunsetted”, with individuals reverting to the original phenotype. Thus, epigenetic phenotype switching is dynamic and temporary and can help bridge periods of environmental stress. Epigenetic inheritance likely contributes to evolution both directly and indirectly. While there is as yet incomplete evidence of direct permanent incorporation of a complex epigenetic phenotype into the genome, doubtlessly, the presence of epigenetic markers and the phenotypes they create (which may sort quite separately from the genotype within a population) will influence natural selection and, so, drive the collective genotype of a population.

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The soft genome

Cited by 17 publications

References 58 publications

A cytoplasmic Argonaute protein promotes the inheritance of RNAi

A cytoplasmic Argonaute protein promotes the inheritance of RNAi

Inter-generational consequences for growing Caenorhabditis elegans in liquid

Epigenetic Inheritance and Its Role in Evolutionary Biology: Re-Evaluation and New Perspectives

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