Download or read book Ecoepigenetics in Clonal and Inbreeding Plants: Transgenerational Adaptation and Environmental Variation written by Bi-Cheng Dong and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2019-10-15 with total page 93 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Clonality is widespread in plant species, and clonal plants often have a broad geographic range and long lifespan. Clonality can maintain high fitness in the short term, but vegetative reproduction is commonly considered to preclude adaptation to changing conditions. However, an increasing body of empirical and theoretical evidence suggests that epigenetic modifications such as DNA methylation can provide an alternative to gene-driven evolution through natural selection and allow clonal plants to maintain fitness in the long term. To deepen our understanding of clonal ecology, this collection of research papers and reviews focuses on how epigenetic regulation can encode phenotypic plasticity and contribute to the rapid adaptation of clonal plants to accelerating global and regional environmental changes.