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Subject:
From:
Peter Borst <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 3 Jan 2018 20:20:51 -0500
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A recent publication covers this topic pretty thoroughly:

Advances in Insect Physiology
Volume 53, Pages 1-324 (2017) 
Insect Epigenetics
Edited by Heleen Verlinden

Excerpt

Epigenetic mechanisms have been "implicated", "suspected" and "associated with" many phenotypic changes in insect morphology, biochemistry, physiology and behaviour. However, the words "demonstrated", "shown" or even "proven" do not emerge in summary statements as often as one would like. 

Typically, changes in the state of DNA methylation, histone modification or noncoding RNA profile—sometimes to quite striking degrees—are "associated with" sometimes equally striking changes in phenotype not just in insects, but in many other organisms. 

Unfortunately, the definitive experiments "proving" an epigenetic basis for a phenotype within a generation, or epigenetic inheritance across generations, are often difficult, expensive and complex. 

As Maleszka (2016) so aptly notes, "To achieve rapid progress, insect epigenetics needs to focus on mechanistic explanations of epigenomic dynamics and move beyond low-depth genome-wide analyses to cell-type specific epigenomics". 

Further reading: anything by Ryszard Maleszka

PLB

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