Mechanism of evolution by genetic assimilation : Equivalence and independence of genetic mutation and epigenetic modulation in phenotypic expression

Biophysics Reviews
Ken Nishikawa, Akira R Kinjo

Abstract

Conrad H. Waddington discovered the phenomenon of genetic assimilation through a series of experiments on fruit flies. In those experiments, artificially exerted environmental stress induced plastic phenotypic changes in the fruit flies, but after some generations, the same phenotypic variant started to appear without the environmental stress. Both the initial state (where the phenotypic changes were environmentally induced and plastic) and the final state (where the phenotypic changes were genetically fixed and constitutive) are experimental facts. However, it remains unclear how the environmentally induced phenotypic change in the first generation becomes genetically fixed in the central process of genetic assimilation itself. We have argued that the key to understanding the mechanism of genetic assimilation lies in epigenetics, and proposed the "cooperative model" in which the evolutionary process depends on both genetic and epigenetic factors. Evolutionary simulations based on the cooperative model reproduced the process of genetic assimilation. Detailed analysis of the trajectories has revealed genetic assimilation is a process in which epigenetically induced phenotypic changes are incrementally and statistically replaced ...Continue Reading

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Citations

Apr 11, 2019·Journal of Evolutionary Biology·Nicholas A Levis, David W Pfennig
Oct 7, 2020·Molecular Biology and Evolution·Nathan G WalworthDavid A Hutchins
May 25, 2021·Blood Cancer Discovery·Emily Schwenger, Ulrich Steidl
Jul 8, 2021·Cancer Discovery·Emily Schwenger, Ulrich Steidl
Apr 24, 2021·Genome Biology and Evolution·Sophie BretonLiliana Milani

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
environmental stress

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