The implications of nongenetic inheritance for evolution in changing environments.
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A research program encompassing experimental studies that test for transgenerational effects of a range of environmental factors, followed by theoretical and empirical studies on the population‐level consequences of such effects are outlined.Abstract:
Nongenetic inheritance is a potentially important but poorly understood factor in population responses to rapid environmental change. Accumulating evidence indicates that nongenetic inheritance influences a diverse array of traits in all organisms and can allow for the transmission of environmentally induced phenotypic changes (‘acquired traits’), as well as spontaneously arising and highly mutable variants. We review models of adaptation to changing environments under the assumption of a broadened model of inheritance that incorporates nongenetic mechanisms of transmission, and survey relevant empirical examples. Theory suggests that nongenetic inheritance can increase the rate of both phenotypic and genetic change and, in some cases, alter the direction of change. Empirical evidence shows that a diversity of phenotypes – spanning a continuum from adaptive to pathological – can be transmitted nongenetically. The presence of nongenetic inheritance therefore complicates our understanding of evolutionary responses to environmental change. We outline a research program encompassing experimental studies that test for transgenerational effects of a range of environmental factors, followed by theoretical and empirical studies on the population-level consequences of such effects.read more
Citations
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References
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Not by genes alone: How culture transformed human evolution.
Peter J. Richerson,Robert Boyd +1 more
TL;DR: "Not by Genes Alone" offers a radical interpretation of human evolution, arguing that the authors' ecological dominance and their singular social systems stem from a psychology uniquely adapted to create complex culture.
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TL;DR: The challenges to understand when evolution will occur and to identify potential evolutionary winners as well as losers, such as species lacking adaptive capacity living near physiological limits can be met through realistic models of evolutionary change linked to experimental data across a range of taxa.
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Epigenetic Transgenerational Actions of Endocrine Disruptors and Male Fertility
TL;DR: The ability of an environmental factor to reprogram the germ line and to promote a transgenerational disease state has significant implications for evolutionary biology and disease etiology.
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Niche Construction: The Neglected Process in Evolution
TL;DR: This book extends evolutionary theory by formally including niche construction and ecological inheritance as additional evolutionary processes, and demonstrates how the theory can resolve long-standing problems in ecology, particularly by advancing the sorely needed synthesis of ecology and evolution.
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