Empirical patterns of environmental variation favor adaptive transgenerational plasticity

DNA methylation mediates genetic variation for adaptive transgenerational plasticity.

Environmental stresses experienced by individual parents can influence offspring phenotypes in ways that enhance survival under similar conditions. Although such adaptive transgenerational plasticity is well documented, its transmission mechanisms are generally unknown. One possible mechanism is environmentally induced DNA methylation changes. We tested this hypothesis in the annual plant Polyg...

Transgenerational plasticity is adaptive in the wild.

Plants exhibit adaptive responses to light, but it is not known whether parental plants transmit environmental cues that elicit adaptive responses in offspring. We show that offspring life history (annual versus biennial) is influenced by the maternal light environment (understory versus light gap). This transgenerational plasticity is adaptive when offspring are grown in their maternal light e...

Contrasting patterns of transgenerational plasticity in ecologically distinct congeners.

Stressful parental environments can influence offspring size and development either adaptively or maladaptively, yet little is known about species' differences in this complex aspect of phenotypic plasticity. We performed a reciprocal split-brood experiment to compare transgenerational plasticity in response to drought stress in two closely related annual plant species. We raised inbred replica...

Adaptive transgenerational plasticity in the perennial Plantago lanceolata

V. Latzel ([email protected]) and O. Bossdorf, Inst. of Plant Sciences, Univ. of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, CH-3013 Bern, Switzerland. VL also at: Inst. of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Z á mek 1, CZ-252 43 Pr ů honice, Czech Republic. – Š . Jane č ek, J. Dole ž al and J. Klime š ov á , Inst. of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Dukelsk á 135, CZ-379 82 T...

Transgenerational Effects of Environmental Exposures