Behavioral epigenetics in ecological context

Abstract

In their review, Ledon-Rettig, Richards and Martin (hence forth LRM) discuss the relations between the fast-developing research in behavioral epigenetics and ecology, outlining a framework for epigenetic ecology in animals. Their approach has its roots in an epigenetic psychological perspective that began in the 20th century with the work of the great developmental psychologist, Jean Piaget, who used the epigenetic terminology and ideas of Conrad Waddington to explain some aspects of human behavioral development, and to argue for the central role of behavior in animal evolution (e.g., Piaget 1978). Later, behavioral development and epigenetics also became central to the work of a few eminent behavioral ecologists and ethologists: the British biologist Patrick Bateson has been arguing for the importance of learning in animal evolution for many years, and was one of the first to integrate transgenerational epigenetic inheritance into his research (Curley et al 2008); in the USA, the developmental psychobiologist, Gilbert Gottlieb, was a major proponent of the epigenetic view (Gottlieb 1992). Both Bateson and Gottlieb drew attention to the relationship between flexibility of adaptive behavior and flexible epigenetic molecular mechanisms, highlighting the evolutionary implications of their epigenetic perspective. As LRM show, there is growing evidence relating epigenetic changes in the nervous system with persistent ecologically-relevant behaviors, and they explore some of the major implications of these relations. I would like to suggest 2 additional systems that might be useful for studying epigenetic behavioral ecology: first, studies of animal domestication, and second, studies of the epigenetic correlates of the cultural transmission of behaviors in wild populations.