Epigenetics

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Can wildlife species adjust to changing environmental conditions? How do they cope with rising temperatures? And are they able to pass on their “experience” to their offspring? For a long time, genetic adaptability of living beings was thought to be based entirely on changes in the building blocks of the genome passed on from one generation to another. Nowadays, however, there is evidence of mechanisms that cause the genome to respond flexibly to environmental factors – this is precisely what the field of epigenetics describes. Epigenetics builds a bridge between the genome and the environment. Just like on a piano keyboard, the genome in each cell of a living being is identical, whilst epigenetics determines the song that is played. In this cartoon, Ada tells us how epigenetics composes these songs. We learn more about wildlife, evolution, science, and about us as human beings. The Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) is an interdisciplinary research institution that develops a scientific basis for innovative wildlife conservation strategies. Guided by its mission of “evolutionary wildlife research for conservation”, the IZW studies the many different life histories and adaptations that wildlife species have developed in the course of evolution.

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Alexandra Weyrich

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