Mini-review • DOI: 10.2478/ngi-2013-0005 • NGI • 2012 • 38-50 NoN-GeNetic iNheritaNce 38 * E-mail: santiago@ucsc.edu Non-genetic inheritance and changing environments Introduction: Organisms in A Changing World Climate change has and will continue to impact species worldwide [1]. The environmental variables characterizing this change include mean temperature [2], extreme temperature [3], unpredictability in temperature [4], precipitation regime [5], and mean ocean pH [6]. Species will almost surely have to contend with altered food webs [7], the increasing threat of invasion [8], and variation in disease dynamics [9]. Evaluating how populations will cope with these changes is of considerable practical importance and will surely provide new insights about fundamental aspects of biology. The focus of most work to date has been on migration out of stressful zones (e.g., [10]), within-generation phenotypically plastic responses (e.g., [11]), and evolutionary changes (e.g., [12]). Non-Genetic Inheritance (NGI) is another mechanism but has received comparatively little attention. Here, we review evidence for TransGenerational Plasticity (TGP) with respect to environmental variables likely to be impacted by climate change. Our goal is to use published reports to assess how common and taxonomically widespread TGP is as a phenomenon, in order to better assess its potential importance for coping with predicted changes in climate. Deining TGP We use TGP to indicate instances in which the environment experienced by the parents affects the shape of the reaction norm in their offspring. In the simplest case, the parental environment and the offspring environment interact to determine the offspring phenotype (Figure 1). We make the distinction between TGP and the more generic term ‘maternal effects’ for two reasons. First, either parent may contribute to TGP (see below for speciic examples). Second, TGP is only manifest when there is variation in the environment in both generations. The notion of TGP has appeared under various names, including maternal environmental effects [13], intergenerational effects [14], legacy or carry-over effects [15], cross-generational plasticity [16], and trans-generational acclimation [17]. For an additional characterization, we turn to the experiments of Salinas and Munch [18], who raised sheepshead minnows (Cyprinodon variegatus) for an entire generation in the laboratory at 21-22°C, then transferred individuals to 24, 29, or 34°C. They removed eggs quickly after females spawned and then measured the growth rates of the offspring in the same three temperatures. They showed that the offspring reaction norms depended upon the temperature that the parent experienced 1 Center for Stock Assessment Research, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, USA 2 Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060, USA 3 Dept. of Biology, University of Bergen, Bergen, 5020, Norway 4 Fisheries Ecology Division, Southwest Fisheries Science Center, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060, USA Santiago Salinas 1 *, Simon C. Brown 2 , Marc Mangel 1,3 , Stephan B. Munch 4 Received 28 July 2013 Accepted 31 August 2013 Abstract Climate change continues to impact species worldwide. Understanding and predicting how populations will respond is of clear importance. Here, we review a mechanism by which populations may respond rapidly to these changes: Trans-Generational Plasticity (TGP). TGP exists when the environment experienced by the parents affects the shape of the reaction norm in their offspring; that is, the parental and offspring environments interact to determine the offspring phenotype. We survey 80 empirical studies from 63 species (32 orders, 9 phyla) that demonstrate TGP. Overall, TGP is taxonomically widespread and present in response to environmental drivers likely to be impacted by climate change. Although many examples now exist, we also identify areas of research that could greatly improve our understanding of TGP. We conclude that TGP is suficiently established both theoretically and empirically to merit study as a potential coping tactic against rapid environmental changes. Keywords Transgenerational plasticity • Maternal effect • Inter-generational • Cross-generational • Acclimation © 2013 Santiago Salinas et al., licensee Versita Sp. z o. o. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license, which means that the text may be used for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author Unauthenticated Download Date | 7/16/16 12:25 AM