Epigenetic modifications are widely accepted as playing a critical role in the regulation of
gene expression and thereby contributing to the determination of the phenotype of
multicellular organisms. In general, these marks are cleared and re-established each
generation, but there have been reports in a number of model organisms that at some loci in
the genome this clearing is incomplete. This phenomenon is referred to as transgenerational
epigenetic inheritance. Moreover, recent evidence shows that the environment can stably …

Since the 1990s, a growing number of evolution-oriented biologists have expressed the
view that the foundations of the Modern Synthesis—the evolutionary paradigm that was
constructed during the 1930s and 1940s and has dominated views of evolution for the past
60 years—need rethinking. They believe that the construction of a new, extended,
evolutionary synthesis is under way. Challenges to the Modern Synthesis view have been
coming from many directions, most notably from developmental biology, microbiology …