Selection on the epigenome: Small RNA inheritance in animal evolution

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Harris, Isaac, Immler, Simone, Chapman, Tracey and Maklakov, Alexei A. (2025) Selection on the epigenome: Small RNA inheritance in animal evolution. Trends in Genetics. ISSN 0168-9525

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Abstract

The inheritance of small RNAs (sRNAs) is taxonomically widespread. Changing environments alter the production and presence of sRNAs in the germline, and this can in theory either increase offspring phenotypic variance as an evolutionary bet-hedging strategy or elicit predictive and adaptive phenotypic responses that increase offspring fitness. Nevertheless, the putative role of sRNA inheritance systems in adaptive evolution is still debated and it is currently unclear how selection acts on sRNAs. We outline two adaptive sRNA inheritance strategies – specialist and generalist – and discuss non-adaptive alternatives and the evolutionary implications of different strategies. Our review suggests that the role of natural selection in sRNA inheritance has been significantly overlooked, potentially leading to misinterpretations of the causal agents and the evolutionary implications of sRNA inheritance.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Funding information: This work was supported by a grant from the Leverhulme Trust (RPG-2023-068: The mechanisms and adaptive value of transgenerational epigenetic effects).
Uncontrolled Keywords:	epigenetics,evolution,natural selection,small rnas,transgenerational epigenetic inheritance,genetics ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1300/1311
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science Faculty of Science > School of Biological Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Organisms and the Environment
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?... https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	16 May 2025 08:30
Last Modified:	28 May 2025 08:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/99284
DOI:	10.1016/j.tig.2025.04.007

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