ArticlePhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2021
Epigenetic inheritance and evolution: a historian's perspective.
Article in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Epigenetic regulation of floral transition: pathways and players.Plant cell reports · 2026Review
- Metabo-epigenetic circuits of heart failure: chromatin-modifying enzymes as determinants of metabolic plasticity.EMBO molecular medicine · 2026Review
- Such sweet thunder.Second language research · 2025Article
- Adaptive Significance of Non-coding RNAs: Insights from Cancer Biology.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Review
- Functional evolution and functional biodiversity: 150 years ofFrontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2024Article
- A theoretical perspective on Waddington's genetic assimilation experiments.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- From Environmental Epigenetics to the Inheritance of Acquired Traits: A Historian and Molecular Perspective on an Unnecessary Lamarckian Explanation.Biomolecules · 2023Review
- Quantum Leaps in Human Biocultural Evolution and the Relationship to Cranial Capacity.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Advances of Epigenetic Biomarkers and Epigenome Editing for Early Diagnosis in Breast Cancer.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Origin of Cancer: Cell work is the Key to Understanding Cancer Initiation and Progression.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022Article
- How does epigenetics influence the course of evolution?Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Article
- The epiallelic potential of transposable elements and its evolutionary significance in plants.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Review
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Abstract
The aim of this article is to put the growing interest in epigenetics in the field of evolutionary theory into a historical context. First, I assess the view that epigenetic inheritance could be seen as vindicating a revival of (neo)Lamarckism. Drawing on Jablonka's and Lamb's considerable output, I identify several differences between modern epigenetics and what Lamarckism was in the history of science. Even if Lamarckism is not back, epigenetic inheritance might be appealing for evolutionary biologists because it could potentiate two neglected mechanisms: the Baldwin effect and genetic assimilation. Second, I go back to the first ideas about the Baldwin effect developed in the late nineteenth century to show that the efficiency of this mechanism was already linked with a form of non-genetic inheritance. The opposition to all forms of non-genetic inheritance that prevailed at the time of the rise of the Modern Synthesis helps to explain why the Baldwin effect was understood as an insignificant mechanism during the second half of the twentieth century. Based on this historical reconstruction, in §4, I examine what modern epigenetics can bring to the picture and under what conditions epigenetic inheritance might be seen as strengthening the causal relationship between adaptability and adaptation. Throughout I support the view that the Baldwin effect and genetic assimilation, even if they are quite close, should not be conflated, and that drawing a line between these concepts is helpful in order to better understand where epigenetic inheritance might endorse a new causal role. This article is part of the theme issue 'How does epigenetics influence the course of evolution?'
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