IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v15y2024i1d10.1038_s41467-024-50359-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gene body methylation evolves during the sustained loss of parental care in the burying beetle

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Sarkies

    (University of Oxford)

  • Jennifer Westoby

    (University of Cambridge)

  • Rebecca Mary Kilner

    (University of Cambridge)

  • Rahia Mashoodh

    (University of Cambridge
    University College London)

Abstract

Epigenetic modifications, such as 5-methylcytosine (5mC), can sometimes be transmitted between generations, provoking speculation that epigenetic changes could play a role in adaptation and evolution. Here, we use experimental evolution to investigate how 5mC levels evolve in populations of biparental insect (Nicrophorus vespilloides) derived from a wild source population and maintained independently under different regimes of parental care in the lab. We show that 5mC levels in the transcribed regions of genes (gene bodies) diverge between populations that have been exposed to different levels of care for 30 generations. These changes in 5mC do not reflect changes in the levels of gene expression. However, the accumulation of 5mC within genes between populations is associated with reduced variability in gene expression within populations. Our results suggest that evolved change in 5mC could contribute to phenotypic evolution by influencing variability in gene expression in invertebrates.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Sarkies & Jennifer Westoby & Rebecca Mary Kilner & Rahia Mashoodh, 2024. "Gene body methylation evolves during the sustained loss of parental care in the burying beetle," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-50359-0
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-50359-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-50359-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-024-50359-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yi Jin Liew & Emily J. Howells & Xin Wang & Craig T. Michell & John A. Burt & Youssef Idaghdour & Manuel Aranda, 2020. "Intergenerational epigenetic inheritance in reef-building corals," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 10(3), pages 254-259, March.
    2. Grégoire Vernaz & Milan Malinsky & Hannes Svardal & Mingliu Du & Alexandra M. Tyers & M. Emília Santos & Richard Durbin & Martin J. Genner & George F. Turner & Eric A. Miska, 2021. "Mapping epigenetic divergence in the massive radiation of Lake Malawi cichlid fishes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Bates, Douglas & Mächler, Martin & Bolker, Ben & Walker, Steve, 2015. "Fitting Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using lme4," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 67(i01).
    4. Samuel V. Arsenault & Brendan G. Hunt & Sandra M. Rehan, 2018. "The effect of maternal care on gene expression and DNA methylation in a subsocial bee," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-9, December.
    5. Claude Becker & Jörg Hagmann & Jonas Müller & Daniel Koenig & Oliver Stegle & Karsten Borgwardt & Detlef Weigel, 2011. "Spontaneous epigenetic variation in the Arabidopsis thaliana methylome," Nature, Nature, vol. 480(7376), pages 245-249, December.
    6. Iryna Ivasyk & Leonora Olivos-Cisneros & Stephany Valdés-Rodríguez & Marie Droual & Hosung Jang & Robert J. Schmitz & Daniel J. C. Kronauer, 2023. "DNMT1 mutant ants develop normally but have disrupted oogenesis," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    7. Pilar Cubas & Coral Vincent & Enrico Coen, 1999. "An epigenetic mutation responsible for natural variation in floral symmetry," Nature, Nature, vol. 401(6749), pages 157-161, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yinwen Zhang & Hosung Jang & Rui Xiao & Ioanna Kakoulidou & Robert S. Piecyk & Frank Johannes & Robert J. Schmitz, 2021. "Heterochromatin is a quantitative trait associated with spontaneous epiallele formation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Geoghegan, Jemma L. & Spencer, Hamish G., 2013. "Exploring epiallele stability in a population-epigenetic model," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 136-144.
    3. JANSSENS, Jochen & DE CORTE, Annelies & SÖRENSEN, Kenneth, 2016. "Water distribution network design optimisation with respect to reliability," Working Papers 2016007, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    4. Raymond Hernandez & Elizabeth A. Pyatak & Cheryl L. P. Vigen & Haomiao Jin & Stefan Schneider & Donna Spruijt-Metz & Shawn C. Roll, 2021. "Understanding Worker Well-Being Relative to High-Workload and Recovery Activities across a Whole Day: Pilot Testing an Ecological Momentary Assessment Technique," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-17, October.
    5. Christopher Hassall & Michael Nisbet & Evan Norcliffe & He Wang, 2024. "The Potential Health Benefits of Urban Tree Planting Suggested through Immersive Environments," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-12, February.
    6. Jie Zhao & Ji Chen & Damien Beillouin & Hans Lambers & Yadong Yang & Pete Smith & Zhaohai Zeng & Jørgen E. Olesen & Huadong Zang, 2022. "Global systematic review with meta-analysis reveals yield advantage of legume-based rotations and its drivers," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    7. Elisabeth Beckmann & Lukas Olbrich & Joseph Sakshaug, 2024. "Multivariate assessment of interviewer-related errors in a cross-national economic survey (Lukas Olbrich, Elisabeth Beckmann, Joseph W. Sakshaug)," Working Papers 253, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank).
    8. F J Heather & D Z Childs & A M Darnaude & J L Blanchard, 2018. "Using an integral projection model to assess the effect of temperature on the growth of gilthead seabream Sparus aurata," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(5), pages 1-19, May.
    9. Valentina Krenz & Arjen Alink & Tobias Sommer & Benno Roozendaal & Lars Schwabe, 2023. "Time-dependent memory transformation in hippocampus and neocortex is semantic in nature," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-17, December.
    10. Morán-Ordóñez, Alejandra & Ameztegui, Aitor & De Cáceres, Miquel & de-Miguel, Sergio & Lefèvre, François & Brotons, Lluís & Coll, Lluís, 2020. "Future trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services in Mediterranean forests under global change scenarios," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    11. Jack McDonnell & Thomas McKenna & Kathryn A. Yurkonis & Deirdre Hennessy & Rafael Andrade Moral & Caroline Brophy, 2023. "A Mixed Model for Assessing the Effect of Numerous Plant Species Interactions on Grassland Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function Relationships," Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics, Springer;The International Biometric Society;American Statistical Association, vol. 28(1), pages 1-19, March.
    12. Ana Pinto & Tong Yin & Marion Reichenbach & Raghavendra Bhatta & Pradeep Kumar Malik & Eva Schlecht & Sven König, 2020. "Enteric Methane Emissions of Dairy Cattle Considering Breed Composition, Pasture Management, Housing Conditions and Feeding Characteristics along a Rural-Urban Gradient in a Rising Megacity," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-18, December.
    13. Damian M. Herz & Manuel Bange & Gabriel Gonzalez-Escamilla & Miriam Auer & Keyoumars Ashkan & Petra Fischer & Huiling Tan & Rafal Bogacz & Muthuraman Muthuraman & Sergiu Groppa & Peter Brown, 2022. "Dynamic control of decision and movement speed in the human basal ganglia," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, December.
    14. Kathrin Stenchly & Marc Victor Hansen & Katharina Stein & Andreas Buerkert & Wilhelm Loewenstein, 2018. "Income Vulnerability of West African Farming Households to Losses in Pollination Services: A Case Study from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-12, November.
    15. Dongyan Liu & Chongran Zhou & John K. Keesing & Oscar Serrano & Axel Werner & Yin Fang & Yingjun Chen & Pere Masque & Janine Kinloch & Aleksey Sadekov & Yan Du, 2022. "Wildfires enhance phytoplankton production in tropical oceans," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    16. Zhaogeng Yang & Yanhui Li & Peijin Hu & Jun Ma & Yi Song, 2020. "Prevalence of Anemia and its Associated Factors among Chinese 9-, 12-, and 14-Year-Old Children: Results from 2014 Chinese National Survey on Students Constitution and Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-10, February.
    17. Marco Lopez-Cruz & Fernando M. Aguate & Jacob D. Washburn & Natalia Leon & Shawn M. Kaeppler & Dayane Cristina Lima & Ruijuan Tan & Addie Thompson & Laurence Willard Bretonne & Gustavo los Campos, 2023. "Leveraging data from the Genomes-to-Fields Initiative to investigate genotype-by-environment interactions in maize in North America," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    18. Baumann, Elias & Kern, Jana & Lessmann, Stefan, 2019. "Usage Continuance in Software-as-a-Service," IRTG 1792 Discussion Papers 2019-005, Humboldt University of Berlin, International Research Training Group 1792 "High Dimensional Nonstationary Time Series".
    19. Alexandra M. Cheney & Stephanann M. Costello & Nicholas V. Pinkham & Annie Waldum & Susan C. Broadaway & Maria Cotrina-Vidal & Marc Mergy & Brian Tripet & Douglas J. Kominsky & Heather M. Grifka-Walk , 2023. "Gut microbiome dysbiosis drives metabolic dysfunction in Familial dysautonomia," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    20. repec:cup:judgdm:v:16:y:2021:i:1:p:201-237 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. C. Gabriel Hidalgo Pizango & Eurídice N. Honorio Coronado & Jhon del Águila-Pasquel & Gerardo Flores Llampazo & Johan de Jong & César J. Córdova Oroche & José M. Reyna Huaymacari & Steve J. Carver & D, 2022. "Sustainable palm fruit harvesting as a pathway to conserve Amazon peatland forests," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 5(6), pages 479-487, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-50359-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.