Epigenetic research has accelerated rapidly in the twenty-first century, generating justified
excitement and hope, but also a degree of hype. Here we review how the field has evolved …

Scientific activities take place within the structured sets of ideas and assumptions that define
a field and its practices. The conceptual framework of evolutionary biology emerged with the …

Phenotypic plasticity–the ability of an individual organism to alter its features in direct
response to a change in its environment–is ubiquitous. Understanding how and why this …

The clonal evolution model of cancer was developed in the 1950s–1970s and became
central to cancer biology in the twenty-first century, largely through studies of cancer …

Niche construction refers to the modification of selective environments by organisms.
Theoretical and empirical studies of niche construction are increasing in importance as foci …

Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance refers to the transmission of epigenetic information
through the germline. While it has been observed in plants, nematodes and fruit flies, its …

The microbial community that is systematically associated with a given host plant is called
the core microbiota. The definition of the core microbiota was so far based on its taxonomic …

The genetic enhancement of wild animals and plants for characteristics that benefit human
populations has been practiced for thousands of years, resulting in impressive …

The global loss of biodiversity continues at an alarming rate. Genomic approaches have
been suggested as a promising tool for conservation practice as scaling up to genome-wide …

Despite theoretical justification for the evolution of animal culture, empirical evidence for it
beyond mammals and birds remains scant, and we still know little about the process of …