Climate change may speed evolution through inherited gene regulation changes
Why it matters: Climate change may accelerate evolution through inherited gene regulation changes in animals, impacting future biodiversity.
- A new paper in Molecular Biology and Evolution reveals that climate shock can induce persistent changes in animal development.
- These changes in gene regulation are inherited across generations, suggesting a mechanism for rapid evolutionary adaptation.
- The escalating effects of climate change are likely to, in effect, speed up evolution by embedding these developmental shifts into species' heritable traits.
A new study published in Molecular Biology and Evolution suggests that climate change could accelerate evolution by inducing heritable changes in gene regulation that persist across generations, even after the initial environmental shock subsides. This implies that developmental alterations caused by climate events are not merely transient but can become ingrained in a species' genetic legacy.
