Abstract

Epigenetics as Driver of Adaptation and Diversification in Microbial Eukaryotes

Highlights

  • Microbial eukaryotes, i.e., protists, represent the bulk of eukaryotic diversity in terms of species diversity and biomass

  • We argue that epigenetic processes, such as chromatin modification and/or regulation by small non-protein-coding RNAs that rapidly modify genomes and gene expression states, play important roles in driving phenotypic plasticity, differential adaptation and diversification of protists

  • In order to elucidate the interactions between ecology, epigenetics, and evolution that are the basis of our suggested model, special consideration has to be placed on the following questions (Figure 1): (1) does the environment trigger epigenetic variations, (2) can epigenetic modifications lead to phenotypic plasticity, and (3) are environmentally acquired epigenetic marks stably inherited to establish reproductive isolation and speciation? Over the last few years research efforts investigating these interactions have rapidly increased, yet so far mostly focusing on multicellular model species (e.g., Smith and Ritchie, 2013; Vogt, 2017; Boskovic and Rando, 2018; Perez and Lehner, 2019)

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Summary

Introduction

I.e., protists, represent the bulk of eukaryotic diversity in terms of species diversity and biomass. We argue that epigenetic processes, such as chromatin modification and/or regulation by small non-protein-coding RNAs (npc-RNAs) that rapidly modify genomes and gene expression states, play important roles in driving phenotypic plasticity, differential adaptation and diversification of protists.

Results
Conclusion

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