Eva Jablonka from Tel Aviv University speaks at our Annual Lecture Series.
Abstract: Studies of developmental plasticity, inclusive inheritance (i.e., genetic, epigenetic behavioral and symbol-based inheritance), and niche construction collectively – and controversially – suggest that our concepts of heredity, evolution, and development need to be expanded. My focus in this lecture is on the implications of an extended notion of inheritance, in particular epigenetic inheritance, for evolution. I examine the evidence for epigenetic inheritance in different taxa, present models of population epigenetics, and discuss the involvement of epigenetic inheritance in adaptive evolution and macro-evolution. I argue that the incorporation of the evolutionary effects of epigenetic inheritance requires the extension of the evolutionary synthesis (EES) beyond the current neo-Darwinian model.
