Life Sciences Commons^™

Population Genetics And Epigenetics Of Two Salt Marsh Plant Species Along An Environmental Gradient, Christy M. Foust

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of a given genotype to exhibit different phenotypes in response to environmental variables, which can impact population level processes. Plasticity of ecologically-relevant traits is important to an organism’s environmental response; however, the underlying mechanisms of plasticity are largely unknown. Ecological epigenetics may offer mechanisms (e.g. DNA methylation) underlying phenotypic plasticity. Epigenetics can be defined as the underlying molecular mechanisms that allow one genotype to exhibit different phenotypes. Differential DNA methylation is one epigenetic mechanism that has been correlated with a number of ecologically-relevant traits; including, differential herbivory in Viola cazorlensis, spinescence in Ilex aquifolium …