School of Life and Environmental Sciences A08, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
Humboldt University, Faculty of Life Sciences, 10115 Berlin, Germany; Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Müggelseedamm 310, 12587 Berlin, Germany.
Trends Ecol Evol. 2019 Sep;34(9):818-830. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2019.04.017. Epub 2019 May 29.
Many animals occur in groups, and the ecology and evolution of populations and species are intrinsically linked to group function and social behaviour. Here we summarise recent data showing that the biotic and abiotic environments can have far-reaching consequences for social behaviour via epigenetic mechanisms that modify physiological processes. The environment affects the physiology of individuals via epigenetic mechanisms and individual physiology influences conspecific interactions. At a higher level of organisation, these conspecific interactions can scale up to social states of groups and affect populations by altering dispersal and gene flow. Future research should focus on determining empirically the range of contexts within which epigenetic mechanisms can heritably alter social interactions and document their effects on populations.
许多动物以群体形式出现，种群和物种的生态学和进化与群体功能和社会行为有着内在的联系。在这里，我们总结了最近的数据，表明生物和非生物环境可以通过改变生理过程的表观遗传机制，对社会行为产生深远的影响。环境通过表观遗传机制影响个体的生理机能，而个体的生理机能又影响同种个体间的相互作用。在更高的组织水平上，这些同种个体间的相互作用可以扩展到群体的社会状态，并通过改变扩散和基因流动来影响种群。未来的研究应该集中在确定表观遗传机制可以在多大程度上遗传地改变社会相互作用的范围内，并记录它们对种群的影响。
