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1 - Nature–nurture interactions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Marla B. Sokolowski  and
Joel D. Levine
Edited by
Tamás Székely ,
Allen J. Moore  and
Jan Komdeur
Marla B. Sokolowski
Affiliation:
University of Toronto at Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Joel D. Levine
Affiliation:
University of Toronto at Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Tamás Székely
Affiliation:
University of Bath
Allen J. Moore
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
Jan Komdeur
Affiliation:
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands
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Summary

Overview

Inheritance is associated with a paradox: it roars with the survival of the species, while at the same time it whispers a fragile message that is constantly modified even among kin. The genes, the environmental context and the traits that arise from their interaction are interrelated. A complexity that characterises this three-way relationship has been attributed to the nature–nurture dichotomy. Traditionally, nature is understood to mean the genes, whereas nurture denotes the environment. So, for example, people may debate why one pumpkin is superior to another – was it the quality of the soil or other growth conditions in the pumpkin patch, or was it the specific combination of alleles in that pumpkin's genome?

In recent years, there has been a long-overdue paradigm shift from a limited focus on the nature–nurture dichotomy to a more expansive view that includes gene by environment (G × E) interactions and even gene–environment (G ↔ E) interdependencies, as defined and discussed in this chapter (Rutter 2007). A mechanistic basis for the concept of interdependency arose from advances in molecular biology and genomics which show that DNA is not only inherited but is also environmentally responsive. The latter argument is supported by findings that individuals with dissimilarities in their DNA (DNA polymorphisms) are differentially affected by the same environment. Different environments through development and adulthood can affect individuals with one genetic variant but not another.

Type
Chapter
Information
Social Behaviour
Genes, Ecology and Evolution
 , pp. 11 - 25
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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