26 Oral - Keynote #2 Magnus Nordborg
Wednesday June 08, 7:30 PM - 8:15 PM

Author:
Magnus Nordborg

Affiliation: Gregor Mendel Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria

Keywords:
Complex traits

Epigenetics continues to fascinate, especially the notion that it blurs the line between “nature and nurture” and could make Lamarckian adaptation via the inheritance of acquired characteristics possible. That this is in principle possible is clear: in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, experimentally induced DNA methylation variation can be inherited and affect important traits. The question is whether this is important in nature. Recent studies of A. thaliana have revealed a pattern of correlation between levels of methylation, climate variables, and recent transposon activity that is consistent with methylation playing a role in adaptation. Unexpectedly, it has also become clear that much of this variation has a genetic basis, suggesting the methylation is more of a phenotype than an epigenetic inheritance system. I will describe currently knowledge of this, based on research from my own group and others.