Understanding 'Non-genetic' Inheritance: Insights from Molecular-Evolutionary Crosstalk

Adrian‐Kalchhauser, Irene; Sultan, Sonia E.; Shama, Lisa N S; Spence-Jones, Helen; Tiso, Stefano; Valsecchi, Claudia Isabelle Keller; Weissing, Franz J.

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2020.08.011

Cited by 100 publications

(112 citation statements)

References 151 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Our study provides novel insight into the role of maternally-inherited molecular cargo in finfishes. The approach taken in our study sheds light on the importance of the transcriptome in the development of the nervous system, which confirms the role of neurogenesis-related mRNAs as very important nongenetic heritable factors [7,79]. On the other hand, proteomic analysis highlights the crucial and specific role of proteins in the immune response in ovulated eggs.…”

Section: 3conclusionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Neurodevelopment vs. the immune system: complementary contributions of maternally-inherited gene transcripts and proteins to successful egg development in fish

Żarski

Cam

Fröhlich

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: In Metazoans, embryonic development relies on maternally-inherited mRNAs and proteins that are critical for early developmental success and known to play major roles at later stages, beyond zygotic genome activation. However, very poor concordance between transcript and protein levels in oocytes and embryos of vertebrates suggest that maternally-inherited proteins and maternally-inherited mRNAs are playing different roles in unfertilized eggs, not considered to date comprehensively. The aim of this study was to investigate the respective contribution of maternally-inherited mRNAs and maternally-inherited proteins to egg molecular cargo and to its developmental competence using pikeperch, an ecologically and commercially relevant freshwater fish species, as a model. Results: Our data shed new light on the importance of maternally-inherited mRNAs in nervous system development suggesting that neurogenesis is a major mRNA-dependent non-genetic inheritance factor. In contrast, our results highlight a specific role of maternally-inherited proteins in immune response in ovulated eggs suggesting that maternal proteins would rather contribute to developmental success through protection of the embryo against pathogens. Further analysis revealed susceptibility of the transcriptome to modifications during the post-vitellogenic processes (i.e., final oocyte maturation and ovulation), whereas proteomic cargo remains unaffected. This may negatively affect developmental competence of the egg and possibly influence further nervous system development of the embryo. Conclusions: Our study provides novel insights into the understanding of type-specific roles of maternally-inherited molecules in fish. Here we show, for the first time, that transcripts and proteins have distinct, yet complementary, functions in the egg of teleost fish. Maternally-inherited mRNAs would shape embryo neurodevelopment and possibly the future behavior of the fish, while maternally-inherited proteins would rather be responsible for protecting the embryo against pathogens. Additionally, we observed that processes directly preceding ovulation may considerably affect the reproductive success by modifying expression level of genes crucial for proper embryonic development, being novel fish egg quality markers (e.g., smarca4 or h3f3a). These results are of major importance for understanding the influence of external factors on reproductive fitness in both captive and wild-type fish species.

show abstract

Section: 3conclusionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Neurodevelopment vs. the immune system: complementary contributions of maternally-inherited gene transcripts and proteins to successful egg development in fish

Żarski

Cam

Fröhlich

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…3,4]. There is now increasing evidence that inheritance can not only involve the DNA itself, but that non-genetic inheritance also exists [5]. This often involves processes whereby environmental exposures to previous generations contribute to outcomes in unexposed descendants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grandparents childhood exposures and religious belief in their granddaughters: possible transgenerational associations

Golding¹,

Gregory²,

Northstone³

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The prevalence of religious belief has fallen dramatically. A possible reason is that environmental exposures to previous generations are involved, e.g., evidence of an association between childhood exposures of grandparents and outcomes in their grandchildren including obesity, autistic traits, and survival have been reported. Generally, the associations between the grandparent’s exposure and grandchild’s outcome varied with sex of grandparent, his/her age at exposure and sex of the grandchild.Using data collected by the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) we investigate whether exposures such as smoking and/or traumatic events experienced by any of the grandparents are associated with the likelihood that their adult grandchildren have a religious belief. We show that the granddaughters (but not the grandsons) were more likely to have reported such a belief if one of their maternal grandparents had experienced traumatic events pre-puberty (age 6-11), or their paternal grandmother had experienced such events in adolescence. Conversely if their maternal grandfather had started smoking regularly during childhood or their paternal grandmother had smoked prenatally, the granddaughter was substantially less likely to be a believer. These associations were mutually independent and not explained by demographic factors. They may account for a small proportion of the fall in prevalence of religious belief over time, but the association needs confirming in other studies.

show abstract

“…Lastly, when environmental fluctuations last for several generations, epigenetic modifications may be integrated into the germ line and affect multiple succeeding generations. This is referred to as transgenerational plasticity or non-genetic inheritance (Perez and Lehner, 2019;Adrian-Kalchhauser et al, 2020). For the remainder of the article we will refer to all these irreversible changes simply as phenotypic plasticity, ignoring the potential physiological constrains that may limit their evolution.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transgenerational Plasticity and Bet-Hedging: A Framework for Reaction Norm Evolution

Joschinski

Bonte

2020

Front. Ecol. Evol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Decision-making under uncertain conditions favors bet-hedging (avoidance of fitness variance), whereas predictable environments favor phenotypic plasticity. However, entirely predictable or entirely unpredictable conditions are rarely found in nature. Intermediate strategies are required when the time lag between information sensing and phenotype induction is large (e.g., transgenerational plasticity) and when cues are only partially predictive of future conditions. Nevertheless, current theory regards plasticity and bet-hedging as distinct entities. We here develop a unifying framework: based on traits with binary outcomes like seed germination or diapause incidence we clarify that diversified bet-hedging (risk-spreading among one’s offspring) and transgenerational plasticity are mutually exclusive strategies, arising from opposing changes in reaction norms (allocating phenotypic variance among or within environments). We further explain the relationship of this continuum with arithmetic mean maximization vs. conservative bet-hedging (a risk-avoidance strategy), and canalization vs. phenotypic variance in a three-dimensional continuum of reaction norm evolution. We discuss under which scenarios costs and limits may constrain the evolution of reaction norm shapes.

show abstract

Understanding 'Non-genetic' Inheritance: Insights from Molecular-Evolutionary Crosstalk

Cited by 100 publications

References 151 publications

Neurodevelopment vs. the immune system: complementary contributions of maternally-inherited gene transcripts and proteins to successful egg development in fish

Neurodevelopment vs. the immune system: complementary contributions of maternally-inherited gene transcripts and proteins to successful egg development in fish

Grandparents childhood exposures and religious belief in their granddaughters: possible transgenerational associations

Transgenerational Plasticity and Bet-Hedging: A Framework for Reaction Norm Evolution

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About