Meeting Abstract

S2-1.3  Friday, Jan. 4  Evolutionary consequences of nongenetic inheritance DAY, Troy; Queen’s University tday@mast.queensu.ca

There has been widespread interest in recent years in inheritance mechanisms that exist alongside genetic inheritance, and the role that these might play in evolution. I will present some work that develops a unified theoretical framework for modeling evolution under the combined effects of genetic and nongenetic inheritance. Despite the considerable diversity of proximate mechanisms of nongenetic inheritance, I will show how they can all be integrated within a relatively simple theory. The approach will be illustrated with some examples that show how nongenetic inheritance can leads to novel predictions and patterns of evolution that would otherwise be unexpected.