Review: Progeny responses to maternal vs progeny environmental cues

The range of responses an individual could display is a contribution of the inheritance of gene variants that determine such responses and the environments experienced by the individual itself and prior generations (nongenetic inheritance). In this review, we discuss recent empirical data to help us understand how the same cues experienced across and within generations (nongenetic information) contribute to progeny phenotypes and adaptation to changing environments. The predictive ability of parental and offspring environments is discussed relative to the costs of expressing a certain phenotype in the progeny, and the conflicts of responding to cues experienced by the different generations. Understanding the adaptive value of transgenerational effects seems relevant in face of the actual climate change projections. (Summary by Gaby Auge) New Phytol. DOI: 10.1111/nph.14495