Environmental pressures on transgenerational epigenetic inheritance: An evolutionary development mechanism influencing atypical neurodevelopment in autism?

Dwaipayan Adhya*, Aicha Massrali, Arkoprovo Paul, Mark Kotter, Jason Carroll, Deepak Srivastava, Jack Price, Simon Baron-Cohen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

Research in developmental neuropsychiatric conditions has revealed morphological and functional divergences in the brain. In some cases, the divergences occur due to one or two highly penetrant genomic mutations. In case such as autism, mutations in varied sets of genes may produce a convergent autism behavioral phenotype. It is thus likely that there may be other forms of non-genomic regulation of gene expression during development affecting behavioral outcome. Epigenetic gene regulation is one such mechanism that can permanently switch on or switch off gene expression, and these epigenetic changes can be inherited from one cell stage to another during differentiation, mimicking the effects of genomic mutations. Epigenetic gene regulation occurring during early developmental stages of cellular differentiation, which are highly sensitive to environmental cues, is the primary mechanism responsible for the phenomenon known as evolutionary development or "evo-devo." This chapter discusses these mechanisms in the context of autism and the environmental factors that influence it.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior
PublisherCambridge University Press
Pages97-112
Number of pages16
ISBN (Electronic)9781108131797
ISBN (Print)9781316642825
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Mar 2020

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