Epigenetic Molecular Mechanisms in Insects
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Epigenetic Molecular Mechanisms in Insects C VILLAGRA , D FRÍAS-LASSERRE Instituto de Entomología, Univ Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación, Santiago, Chile
Keywords Methylation, ncRNAs, HDAC, HAT, polyphenism, eusociality Correspondence C Villagra, Instituto de Entomología, Univ Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación, Santiago, Chile; [email protected] Edited by Lessando Moreira Gontijo – UFV Received 20 August 2019 and accepted 6 April 2020 * Sociedade Entomológica do Brasil 2020
Abstract Insects are the largest animal group on Earth both in biomass and diversity. Their outstanding success has inspired genetics and developmental research, allowing the discovery of dynamic process explaining extreme phenotypic plasticity and canalization. Epigenetic molecular mechanisms (EMMs) are vital for several housekeeping functions in multicellular organisms, regulating developmental, ontogenetic trajectories and environmental adaptations. In Insecta, EMMs are involved in the development of extreme phenotypic divergences such as polyphenisms and eusocial castes. Here, we review the history of this research field and how the main EMMs found in insects help to understand their biological processes and diversity. EMMs in insects confer them rapid response capacity allowing insect either to change with plastic divergence or to keep constant when facing different stressors or stimuli. EMMs function both at intra as well as transgenerational scales, playing important roles in insect ecology and evolution. We discuss on how EMMs pervasive influences in Insecta require not only the control of gene expression but also the dynamic interplay of EMMs with further regulatory levels, including genetic, physiological, behavioral, and environmental among others, as was earlier proposed by the Probabilistic Epigenesis model and Developmental System Theory.
Introduction Among animal life forms, insects have always amazed scientists due to their striking phenotypic diversity, expressed intra as well as inter-specifically (Grimaldi & Engel 2005, Wellmann 2008, Simpson et al 2011). Insects are the largest group of multicellular organisms on Earth, comprising from one to five million of species. Together with plants, they form a large part of the biomass of terrestrial ecosystems (Schoonhoven et al 2013, Stork 2018). Insects’ varied development, morphology, physiology, behavior, and ecology have led researchers to address broad questions regarding inheritance and evolutionary biology (Chapman 1998, Foottit & Adler 2009). Due to this, insects have been ubiquitous model organisms for the study of mechanisms involved in development and phenotypic variability (Berlesse 1913, Sturtevant 1925, Cohen et al 1989, Glastad et al 2018). Thanks to the study of insects, it has been possible to fathom how dynamic, plastic, and context-dependent animal
phenotypes are (Whitman and Ananthakrishnan 2009, Triggs & Knell 2012). For instance, many species-specific features can be dynamically influenced by different sources, such as environ
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