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Highly Accessed Review

Epialleles in plant evolution

Detlef Weigel1 and Vincent Colot234

Author Affiliations

1 Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen, 72076, Germany

2 Ecole Normale Supérieure, Institut de Biologie de l'ENS (IBENS), Paris, F-75005, France

3 CNRS UMR 8197, Paris, F-75005, France

4 Inserm U1024, Paris, F-75005, France

Genome Biology 2012, 13:249 doi:10.1186/gb-2012-13-10-249

Published: 11 October 2012

Abstract

Heritable phenotypic differences caused by epigenetic modifications, rather than DNA sequence mutations, pose a challenge to our understanding of natural variation. Here, we review what is known about plant epialleles and the role of epigenetics in evolution.

Keywords:
DNA methylation; epialleles; epigenetics; genetics; plant evolution