Plant & Food Research Epigenetic Project Receives Marsden Grant

A Plant & Food Research epigenetic project has received support in the latest Marsden Fund investment round. The project will examine how different reproductive modes of species can influence how traits are passed down through generations.

Project leader, Dr Dafni Anastasiadi, says studying the sources and consequences of epigenetic inheritance is critical to understanding nongenetic inheritance, phenotype, and the adaptive potential of populations and species. This is particularly relevant in light of rapid environmental change, where epigenetic modifications are increasingly recognised as important mechanisms for responding to stress.

The exemplar species for the research will be the brine shrimp Artemia, where both sexual and asexual reproduction co-exist. Deciphering these processes will provide applied knowledge critical for predicting species’ future responses under climate change. Current scientific evidence points to asexual reproduction resulting in faster adaptation through epigenetics. This could mean a species is better able to respond to changing environmental conditions, such as rising sea temperatures.

“The results from our trials will provide information about the evolutionary potential of species, including taonga species or economically important species, their ability to keep pace with ongoing environmental challenges and about aspects relevant to the ongoing biodiversity crisis,” says Dr Dafni Anastasiadi.

The project, which has received $360,000 of funding support, will also for the first time look into whether epigenetic changes can become embedded into the genome after they are passed through multiple generations. This is currently considered a mainly theoretical hypothesis.

This latest project will build on earlier epigenetic research by Plant & Food Research, focusing on snapper, which was also supported by the Marsden Fund. This work was also looking at species’ response to rapid environmental change.

In 2023, Te Pūtea Rangahau a Marsden, the Marsden Fund, administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Aparangi on behalf of the New Zealand Government, awarded a total of $83.59 million to 123 research projects. These grants support excellent research in the humanities, engineering, mātauranga, mathematics, science, and the social sciences for three years

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