Animals can produce different phenotypes from the same genome during development,
environmental adaptation and evolution, which is mediated by epigenetic mechanisms …

Clonal organisms are particularly useful to investigate the contribution of epigenetics to
phenotypic plasticity, because confounding effects of genetic variation are negligible. In the …

Background The parthenogenetic marbled crayfish (Procambarus virginalis) is a novel
species that has rapidly invaded and colonized various different habitats. Adaptation to …

DNA methylation in invertebrates seems to play a different role as in mammals and its
evolutionary conservation among invertebrates is unclear. Only two studies describe …

In the last 15 years, considerable attempts have been undertaken to develop the obligately
parthenogenetic marbled crayfish Procambarus virginalis as a new model in biology. Its …

In addition to genetic variation, epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation might
make important contributions to heritable phenotypic diversity in populations. However, it is …

The parthenogenetic all-female marbled crayfish is a novel research model and potent
invader of freshwater ecosystems. It is a triploid descendant of the sexually reproducing …

Abstract Model organisms have contributed significantly to the understanding of basic
biological phenomena. Suitable animal models are at hand for some research disciplines …

DNA methylation is an important epigenetic modification that has been repeatedly implied in
organismal adaptation. However, many previous studies that have linked DNA methylation …

The marbled crayfish (Procambarus virginalis) represents a very recently evolved
parthenogenetic freshwater crayfish species that has invaded diverse habitats in Europe …