Richards Eric J
Department of Biology, Washington University, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2008 Apr;18(2):221-6. doi: 10.1016/j.gde.2008.01.014. Epub 2008 Mar 11.
Our knowledge of the mechanisms that specify and propagate epigenetic states of gene expression is expanding rapidly; however, the significance of variation in epigenetic states at the population level remains largely unexplored. Population epigenetics, emerging as an active subfield at the interface of molecular genetics, genomics, and population biology, addresses questions concerning the prevalence and importance of epigenetic variation in the natural world.
我们对决定和传播基因表达表观遗传状态的机制的认识正在迅速扩展；然而，表观遗传状态在群体水平上的变异的重要性在很大程度上仍未得到探索。群体表观遗传学作为分子遗传学、基因组学和群体生物学交叉领域中一个活跃的子领域正在兴起，它解决了有关自然世界中表观遗传变异的普遍性和重要性的问题。
