The Key Role of Epigenetics in the Persistence of Asexual Lineages

Figure 2

Hypothesis of the epigenetic mechanism underlying the flexibility of a genotype. (a) Phenotypic variation observed in sexual and asexual species. The points represent individual scores of Chrosomus eos, C. neogaeus, and asexual hybrids from two principal component analyses performed on body distance and nondistance measures (modified from [61]). In sexual species, the phenotypic variation among individuals is mostly the result of genetic variation, whereas, in asexual hybrids, it results from differentially expressed alleles of a same genotype. (b) Putative genetic and epigenetic variation at four genes is represented for three individuals per species. Arrows refer to expressed genes, larger arrows to different alleles of an expressed gene (genetic difference), and blocks to silenced genes (epigenetic difference). (c) Under the General Purpose Genotype model, an epigenetically flexible genotype may provide a wide ecological niche for asexual hybrids, where each different epigenetic variant would occupy a narrower niche.