International Lectures on Nature and Human Ecology

Eva Jablonka
The Epigenetic Turn

C.H. Waddington coined the term "epigenetics" to refer to the study of the "causal interactions between genes and their products which bring the phenotype into being". Focusing on the complementary aspects of developmental canalization and phenotypic plasticity, Waddington reasoned that through selection for the developmental capacity to adaptively respond to new environmental stimuli, a genetic constitution that facilitates adaptation to this new environment can be built up. Today's epigenetics is the product of the convergence of the Waddingtonian approach, of cell heredity studies that developed independently since the 1950's, and of a view stressing the central role of physico-chemical constraints and affordances in development and evolution.

Marion Lamb and I called the revival, extension and synthesis of these epigenetic approaches that now contribute to the extension of evolutionary theory, the "epigenetic turn". The lecture is focused on the rise of 21st century epigenetics that explores the molecular mechanisms that underlie cell memory and cell heredity. The study of these mechanisms led to the rise of new sub-disciplines such as medical epigenetics, neuro-epigenetics and behavioral epigenetics, and more recently, after a sociologically interesting lag, of evolutionary epigenetics that includes population and ecological epigenetics. I briefly discuss the evolutionary implications of modern epigenetic research and suggest that although "soft", epigenetic inheritance was not part of Waddington's original developmental-evolutionary framework, it is readily accommodated within it, and, I believe, would have been welcomed by him.

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