ArticlePLoS genetics2009
Assessing the impact of transgenerational epigenetic variation on complex traits.
Article in PLoS genetics, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 338 papers.
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Who cites it
338 citing papers in PubMed.
- Methylated memories mechanism, evidence, and skepticism in plant transgenerational epigenetic inheritance.Protoplasma · 2026Review
- Partial Reproducibility and Pleiotropic Epigenetic QTLs inPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- A VIM2/4 deletion, and premature truncations of CMT2 and FBX5, drive DNA methylation changes after colonization of a novel habitat.Nature plants · 2026Article
- Not just mutations: inbreeding depression persists without genetic variation.Evolution letters · 2026Article
- Centromeres are hotspots of cytosine methylation epimutations in a filamentous fungus.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Micropropagation of Cannabis sativa: genetic and epigenetic stability assessment over multiple generations.Journal of cannabis research · 2026Article
- Ecological Memory in Plants: Epigenetic Integration of Abiotic Stress and Climate Change.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- The mFrontiers in plant science · 2026Review
- Population epigenetics: Historical notes and applications in human health.Genetics and molecular biology · 2026Article
- Nanopore sequencing and multiomics reveal predictable non-coding RNA activation in DNA methylation deficient Arabidopsis thaliana.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Review
- Gene body methylation regulates gene expression and mediates phenotypic diversity in natural Arabidopsis populations.Nature plants · 2025Article
- Introduction of epigenetic variation contribute to resistance against the human parasite Schistosoma mansoni.Epigenetics & chromatin · 2025Article
- Clubroot resistant in cruciferous crops: recent advances in genes and QTLs identification and utilization.Horticulture research · 2025Article
- Partial redundancy buffers deleterious effects of mutating DNA methyltransferase 1-1 (MET1-1) in polyploid wheat.Journal of experimental botany · 2025Article
- Epigenetics and individuality: from concepts to causality across timescales.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2025Review
- Transgenerational Transmission of Epigenetic Marks During Reproduction inThe Yale journal of biology and medicine · 2025Review
- Sperm DNA methylation landscape and its links to male fertility in a non-model teleost using EM-seq.Heredity · 2025Article
- A modulatory role of CG methylation on gene expression in soybean implicates its potential utility in breeding.Plant biotechnology journal · 2025Article
- The Good, the Bad, and the Epigenetic: Stress-Induced Metabolite Regulation and Transgenerational Effects.Epigenomes · 2025Review
278 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
15 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Loss or gain of DNA methylation can affect gene expression and is sometimes transmitted across generations. Such epigenetic alterations are thus a possible source of heritable phenotypic variation in the absence of DNA sequence change. However, attempts to assess the prevalence of stable epigenetic variation in natural and experimental populations and to quantify its impact on complex traits have been hampered by the confounding effects of DNA sequence polymorphisms. To overcome this problem as much as possible, two parents with little DNA sequence differences, but contrasting DNA methylation profiles, were used to derive a panel of epigenetic Recombinant Inbred Lines (epiRILs) in the reference plant Arabidopsis thaliana. The epiRILs showed variation and high heritability for flowering time and plant height ( approximately 30%), as well as stable inheritance of multiple parental DNA methylation variants (epialleles) over at least eight generations. These findings provide a first rationale to identify epiallelic variants that contribute to heritable variation in complex traits using linkage or association studies. More generally, the demonstration that numerous epialleles across the genome can be stable over many generations in the absence of selection or extensive DNA sequence variation highlights the need to integrate epigenetic information into population genetics studies.
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