Epigenetic inheritance of DNA methylation changes in fish living in hydrogen sulfide–rich springs
Joanna L. Kelley, Michael Tobler, Daniel Beck, Ingrid Sadler‐Riggleman, Corey R. Quackenbush, Lenin Arias‐Rodríguez, Michael K. Skinner
Abstract
Significance Environmental factors can promote phenotypic variation through alterations in the epigenome and mediate adaptation of an organism to the environment. Observations suggest the adaptation of Poecilia mexicana fish to toxic, hydrogen sulfide–rich environments in southern Mexico may, in part, be promoted through epigenetic DNA methylation alterations that became generationally stable and are inherited to subsequent generations independent of the environment. Environmental epigenetics may provide an important mechanism mediating adaptation in this species. This is an observation that the epigenome is stably inherited generationally through the germline after the removal of an environmental stressor (i.e., hydrogen sulfide) from a wild population.