Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38114491›Full record

ArticleNature communications2023

A histone demethylase links the loss of plasticity to nongenetic inheritance and morphological change.

Nicholas A Levis, Erik J Ragsdale

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
11citing papers in PubMed
5.3field-weighted citation impact, top 4% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

11 citing papers in PubMed, 17 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Developmental transcriptomics inGenome research · 2025
    Article
  5. Review
  6. Article
  7. High Nutritional Conditions Influence Feeding Plasticity in Pristionchus pacificus and Render Worms Non-Predatory.Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution · 2025
    Article
  8. Review
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Nicholas A LevisDepartment of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA. nicholasalevis@gmail.com.ORCID 0000-0001-7650-2371
Erik J RagsdaleDepartment of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA. ragsdale@indiana.edu.ORCID 0000-0002-9367-8552
Indiana University Bloomington · US

Funding

National Science Foundation (NSF) IOS-1911688National Science Foundation (NSF) IOS-2229383National Science Foundation (NSF) PRFB-2109325
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Plasticity is a widespread feature of development, enabling phenotypic change based on the environment. Although the evolutionary loss of plasticity has been linked both theoretically and empirically to increased rates of phenotypic diversification, molecular insights into how this process might unfold are generally lacking. Here, we show that a regulator of nongenetic inheritance links evolutionary loss of plasticity in nature to changes in plasticity and morphology as selected in the laboratory. Across nematodes of Diplogastridae, which ancestrally had a polyphenism, or discrete plasticity, in their feeding morphology, we use molecular evolutionary analyses to screen for change associated with independent losses of plasticity. Having inferred a set of ancestrally polyphenism-biased genes from phylogenetically informed gene-knockouts and gene-expression comparisons, selection signatures associated with plasticity's loss identify the histone H3K4 di/monodemethylase gene spr-5/LSD1/KDM1A. Manipulations of this gene affect both sensitivity and variation in plastic morphologies, and artificial selection of manipulated lines drive multigenerational shifts in these phenotypes. Our findings thus give mechanistic insight into how traits are modified as they traverse the continuum of greater to lesser environmental sensitivity.

Indexed as

Biological EvolutionNematodaAnimalsGene ExpressionHistone DemethylasesPhenotypeHistone Demethylases

Identifiers

PMID38114491
PMCPMC10730525
OpenAlexW4389949591

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.