Feiner Nathalie, Radersma Reinder, Vasquez Louella, Ringnér Markus, Nystedt Björn, Raine Amanda, Tobi Elmar W, Heijmans Bastiaan T, Uller Tobias
Department of Biology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
iScience. 2022 Apr 25;25(5):104303. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104303. eCollection 2022 May 20.
Transgenerational inheritance of environmentally induced epigenetic marks can have significant impacts on eco-evolutionary dynamics, but the phenomenon remains controversial in ecological model systems. We used whole-genome bisulfite sequencing of individual water fleas () to assess whether environmentally induced DNA methylation is transgenerationally inherited. Genetically identical females were exposed to one of three natural stressors, or a de-methylating drug, and their offspring were propagated clonally for four generations under control conditions. We identified between 70 and 225 differentially methylated CpG positions (DMPs) in F1 individuals whose mothers were exposed to a natural stressor. Roughly half of these environmentally induced DMPs persisted until generation F4. In contrast, treatment with the drug demonstrated that pervasive hypomethylation upon exposure is reset almost completely after one generation. These results suggest that environmentally induced DNA methylation is non-random and stably inherited across generations in , making epigenetic inheritance a putative factor in the eco-evolutionary dynamics of freshwater communities.
环境诱导的表观遗传标记的跨代遗传会对生态进化动态产生重大影响，但在生态模型系统中，这一现象仍存在争议。我们对单个水蚤（）进行了全基因组亚硫酸氢盐测序，以评估环境诱导的DNA甲基化是否会跨代遗传。将基因相同的雌性水蚤暴露于三种自然应激源之一或一种去甲基化药物中，然后在对照条件下对它们的后代进行四代克隆繁殖。我们在其母亲暴露于自然应激源的F1个体中鉴定出70至225个差异甲基化的CpG位点（DMP）。这些环境诱导的DMP中约有一半持续到F4代。相比之下，药物处理表明，暴露后的普遍低甲基化在一代后几乎完全重置。这些结果表明，环境诱导的DNA甲基化在水蚤中是非随机的，并且能跨代稳定遗传，使表观遗传遗传成为淡水群落生态进化动态中的一个假定因素。
