Furrow Robert E
Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2014 Jul 14;9(7):e101559. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0101559. eCollection 2014.
There has been minimal theoretical exploration of the role of epigenetic variation in the response to natural selection. Using a population genetic model, I derive formulae that characterize the response of epigenetic variation to selection over multiple generations. Unlike genetic models in which mutation rates are assumed to be low relative to the strength of selection, the response to selection decays quickly due to a rapid lowering of parent-offspring epiallelic correlation. This effect is separate from the slowing response caused by a reduction in epigenetic variation. These results suggest that epigenetic variation may be less responsive to natural selection than is genetic variation, even in cases where levels of heritability appear similar.
关于表观遗传变异在自然选择响应中的作用，目前的理论探索极少。我使用种群遗传模型推导了一些公式，这些公式描述了多代间表观遗传变异对选择的响应。与假定突变率相对于选择强度较低的遗传模型不同，由于亲子表观等位基因相关性迅速降低，对选择的响应迅速衰减。这种效应与表观遗传变异减少导致的响应放缓是分开的。这些结果表明，即使在遗传力水平看似相似的情况下，表观遗传变异对自然选择的响应可能也不如遗传变异敏感。
