Adrian-Kalchhauser, Irene

Shama, Lisa

Spence-Jones, Helen

Sultan, Sonia

English

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Trends inTREE 2835 No. of Page 1Ecology & EvolutionLetterInherited GeneRegulation UnifiesMolecularApproaches toNongeneticInheritance:Response toEdelaar et al.Irene Adrian-Kalchhauser ,1,*Sonia E. Sultan,2 Lisa Shama,3Helen Spence-Jones,4Stefano Tiso,5Claudia Isabelle Keller Valsecchi,6and Franz J. Weissing5Our recent Opinion in TREE [1] on nonge-netic inheritance presented insights gainedthrough crosstalk between molecular andevolutionary biologists. Reviewing the mo-lecular aspects of nongenetic inheritance,we identified broadly shared features andconcluded that these ‘epigenetic’ mecha-nisms are more complex, functionally di-verse, and variable across organisms thanis commonly recognized. Despite a sharedinterest in transgenerational effects on geneexpression and, hence, progeny pheno-types, the usage of current terminology(e.g., ‘epigenetics’) differs considerablyamong scientific disciplines. To highlightthis shared focus, we proposed the unifyingconcept of ‘inherited gene regulation’ (IGR),which, with few exceptions (e.g., prions),provides an adequate functional descriptionof the spectrum of molecular nongenetic in-heritance systems. As specified in the article[1], IGR encompasses diverse genome-associated mechanisms, such as DNAmethylation and histone modifications, aswell as cytoplasmic signaling components,including noncoding RNAs and hormones.By providing a simplified yet mechanisticallyaccurate way to understand the molecularaspects of nongenetic inheritance, ourpaper aimed to help integrate these fasci-nating systems into evolutionary biologyand ecology.Our intention was not to subsume all formsof nongenetic inheritance under the IGRconcept. For example, cultural inheritancemay involve gene regulation during mem-ory formation in the brain, but it would bea case of extreme (and misleading) reduc-tionism to characterize cultural transmis-sion as inherited gene regulation. Similarly,ecological inheritance cannot be reducedto inherited gene regulation even though itmay create abiotic or biotic conditionsthat influence progeny gene expression.We intended to make clear our specificaims by stating that the scope of our articlewas limited to molecular systems, and byexplicitly excluding cultural and ecologicalinheritance. In retrospect, we could haveemphasized even more strongly that thefocus of our article was specifically on mo-lecular mechanisms and not on othersystems of nongenetic inheritance, whichwe believe would require a substantiallylonger paper addressing some very differentissues. We fully agree with the response ofTreEdelaar and colleagues [2]. We thank themfor initiating this constructive dialog and forproviding the opportunity to further clarifythe scope of IGR. Our paper was intendedas one step toward a larger goal that weshare with our responding colleagues, andwith the entire community of researcherswho are expanding studies of inheritanceprocesses beyond ‘genes only’: building aricher understanding of nongenetic inheri-tance in all its dimensions. Moving forward,we encourage further 'crosstalk' amongdiverse areas of expertise and perspectivesin pursuit of this goal.1Centre for Fish and Wildlife Health, Department for InfectiousDiseases and Pathobiology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University ofBern, Bern 3012, Switzerland2Biology Department, Wesleyan University, Middletown,CT 06459, USA3Coastal Ecology Section, Alfred Wegener Institute HelmholtzCentre for Polar and Marine Research, List 25992, Germany4Centre for Biological Diversity, School of Biology,University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9TF, UK5Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University ofGroningen, Groningen, 9747, The Netherlands6Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB), Mainz 55128, Germany*Correspondence:irene.adrian-kalchhauser@vetsuisse.unibe.ch(I. Adrian-Kalchhauser).https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2021.03.004© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.References1. Adrian-Kalchhauser, I. et al. (2020) Understanding 'Non-genetic' inheritance: insights from molecular-evolutionarycrosstalk. Trends Ecol. Evol. 35, 1078–10892. Edelaar, P. et al. (2021) Inherited-gene-regulation is notenough to understand non-genetic inheritance. Trends EcolEvol. Published online March 23, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2021.03.002nds in Ecology & Evolution, Month 2021, Vol. xx, No. xx 1

Inherited Gene Regulation Unifies Molecular Approaches to Nongenetic Inheritance: Response to Edelaar et al.

https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/53994/1/adrian-kalchhauser_etal_2021.pdf

Inherited Gene Regulation Unifies Molecular Approaches to Nongenetic Inheritance: Response to Edelaar et al.

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