{"id":234087,"date":"2026-03-26T02:25:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T07:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/why-no-individual-is-like-another-when-epigenetics-come-into-play"},"modified":"2026-03-26T02:25:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T07:25:44","slug":"why-no-individual-is-like-another-when-epigenetics-come-into-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/why-no-individual-is-like-another-when-epigenetics-come-into-play","title":{"rendered":"Why no individual is like another when epigenetics come into play"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/why-no-individual-is-like-another-when-epigenetics-come-into-play2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Why do animals behave differently, and what are the consequences of this? A research team from the Collaborative Research Center NC\u00b3 at Bielefeld University and the University of M\u00fcnster now provides a new explanation: epigenetic processes\u2014chemical markings on DNA\u2014may play a key role. The study, <a href=\"https:\/\/linkinghub.elsevier.com\/retrieve\/pii\/S0169534725003702\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in the journal <i>Trends in Ecology &amp; Evolution<\/i>, links individuality, environmental adaptation, genetics, ecology, and evolution in a novel way.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith our study, we propose that individuality and epigenetic variation influence each other,\u201d explains Dr. Denis Meuthen, an evolutionary biologist at Bielefeld University, who is one of the study\u2019s main authors. \u201cThis bidirectionality\u2014this mutual interaction\u2014helps us to better understand ecological and evolutionary processes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why do animals behave differently, and what are the consequences of this? A research team from the Collaborative Research Center NC\u00b3 at Bielefeld University and the University of M\u00fcnster now provides a new explanation: epigenetic processes\u2014chemical markings on DNA\u2014may play a key role. The study, published in the journal Trends in Ecology &amp; Evolution, links [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,19,385,412],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-chemistry","category-evolution","category-genetics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}