Transgenerational Epigenetic Instability Is a Source of Novel Methylation Variants

Schmitz, Robert J.; Schultz, Matthew D.; Lewsey, Mathew G.; O’Malley, Ronan; Urich, Mark A.; Libiger, Ondrej; Schork, Nicholas J.; Ecker, Joseph R.

doi:10.1126/science.1212959

Cited by 607 publications

(732 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…On the one hand, there exist a large number of papers which find that environmental shocks lead to epigenetically induced phenotypic changes that become less pronounced from one generation to the next (Geoghegan, 2014, Schmitz et al, 2011, Remy, 2010. On the other hand, there exist several studies which suggest that epigenetic changes may skip the child generation or may predominantly manifest among the grandchildren of the affected individuals (Padmanabhan, 2013, Pembrey et al, 2006, Zeybel, 2012.…”

Section: Epigenetic Imprintingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transgenerational effects of childhood conditions on third generation health and education outcomes

Berg

Pinger

2016

Economics & Human Biology

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General rightsThis document is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the reference above. Phone: +49-621-181-1923; Fax: +49-228-73-9239. AbstractThis paper examines the extent to which pre-puberty nutritional conditions in one generation affect productivity-related outcomes in later generations. Recent findings from the biological literature suggest that the so-called slow growth period around age 9 is a sensitive period for male germ cell development. We build on this evidence and investigate whether undernutrition at those ages transmits to children and grandchildren. Our findings indicate that third generation males (females) tend to have higher mental health scores if their paternal grandfather (maternal grandmother) was exposed to a famine during the slow growth period. These effects appear to reflect biological responses to adaptive expectations about scarcity in the environment, and as such they can be seen as an economic correctional mechanism in evolution, with marked socio-economic implications for the offspring.

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Section: Epigenetic Imprintingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transgenerational effects of childhood conditions on third generation health and education outcomes

Berg

Pinger

2016

Economics & Human Biology

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“…Two recent reports describe the features of spontaneous epialleles arisen in a homogeneous Arabidopsis population during several generations (Becker et al 2011;Schmitz et al 2011). Both studies analyzed isogenic Arabidopsis plants derived by single-seed descent for 30 generations (Shaw et al 2000) by BS-Seq and showed that the spontaneous loss or gain of methylation at cytosines occurs at a frequency of 1000 -2000 changes per generation, which is roughly three orders of magnitude greater than the occurrence of genetic mutations in the DNA sequence (Ossowski et al 2010).…”

Section: The Molecular Basis Of Epigenetic Variationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epigenetic Variation, Inheritance, and Selection in Plant Populations

Hirsch

Baumberger

Grossniklaus

2012

Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology

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Plant populations show phenotypic diversity, which may be caused by genetic and epigenetic variation. It has recently been shown that new epigenetic variants are generated at a higher rate than genetic variants and several studies have shown that epigenetic variation can be influenced by the environment. Although the heritability of environmentally induced epigenetic traits has gained increasing interest in past years, it is still not clear whether and to what extent induced epigenetic changes have a role in ecology and evolution. Some reports on model and nonmodel species support the possibility of adaptive epigenetic alleles, indicating that epigenetic variants are subject to natural selection. However, most of these studies rely solely on phenotypic data and no information is available about the underlying mechanisms. Thus, the role of inherited epigenetic variation for plant adaptation is unclear and further investigations are required to gain insights into the significance of epigenetic variation for ecological and evolutionary processes. Here, we review mechanisms of epigenetic regulation, epigenetic responses to environmental challenges, their inheritance, and their implication for adaptation and plant evolution.

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“…There is a particular concern in the Northern region of China over the inheritance of DNA methylation alleles from parents to their selfing progeny because inbred japonica rice varieties are popular in this region. Over one million (<10 %) CG SMPs and 2485 CG-DMRs have been identified in Arabidopsis plants propagated by single-seed selfing descent for 30 generations [1,33]. Most (~ 80%) methylation alleles in this study were estimated to be stable and could be used to generate inbred rice.…”

Section: Dna Methylation and Breedingmentioning

confidence: 99%

DNA methylation polymorphism and stability in Chinese indica hybrid rice

Peng

Jiang

Zhang

et al. 2013

Sci. China Life Sci.

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Conventional rice breeding has long focused on exploiting the DNA sequence diversity. However, epigenetic diversity, reflected particularly in DNA methylation, can also contribute to phenotypic variation and should not be overlooked in rice breeding. In this study, 20 parental lines of indica rice, which are widely used in hybrid rice breeding in China, were analyzed to investigate variations of DNA methylation and its inheritance. The results revealed a wide diversity in DNA methylation among these breeding lines. A positive correlation was seen between DNA methylation and genetic diversity. Furthermore, some of the methylated DNA was inherited in the subsequent generation, regardless of whether they were produced by selfing or hybrid-crossing. This study provides insight into the methylation patterns in rice, and suggests the importance of epigenetic diversity in rice breeding. epigenetic diversity, genetic diversity, rice breeding line

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Transgenerational Epigenetic Instability Is a Source of Novel Methylation Variants

Cited by 607 publications

References 41 publications

Transgenerational effects of childhood conditions on third generation health and education outcomes

Transgenerational effects of childhood conditions on third generation health and education outcomes

Epigenetic Variation, Inheritance, and Selection in Plant Populations

DNA methylation polymorphism and stability in Chinese indica hybrid rice

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