title: Past, present, and future of epigenetics applied to livestock breeding.
abstract: This article reviews the concept of Lamarckian inheritance and the use of the term epigenetics in the field of animal genetics. Epigenetics was first coined by Conrad Hal Waddington (1905-1975), who derived the term from the Aristotelian word epigenesis. There exists some controversy around the word epigenetics and its broad definition. It includes any modification of the expression of genes due to factors other than mutation in the DNA sequence. This involves DNA methylation, post-translational modification of histones, but also linked to regulation of gene expression by non-coding RNAs, genome instabilities or any other force that could modify a phenotype. There is little evidence of the existence of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance in mammals, which may commonly be confounded with environmental forces acting simultaneously on an individual, her developing fetus and the germ cell lines of the latter, although it could have an important role in the cellular energetic status of cells. Finally, we review some of the scarce literature on the use of epigenetics in animal breeding programs.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Mejora Genética Animal, Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria, Madrid Spain.
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: González-Recio
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Producción Animal, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Agrónomos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Miguel A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Toro
authors.affiliation: Department of Ruminant Production, Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats - Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries, Caldes de Montbui Spain.
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bach
keywords: animal breeding; breeding programs; epigenetics; population genomics; sustainability