Interplay between genetic, epigenetic, and gene expression variability: Considering complexity in evolvability

Abstract

Abstract Genetic variability, epigenetic variability, and gene expression variability (noise) are generally considered independently in their relationship with phenotypic variation. However, they appear to be intrinsically interconnected and influence it in combination. The study of the interplay between genetic and epigenetic variability has the longest history. This article rather considers the introduction of gene expression variability in its relationships with the two others and reviews for the first time experimental evidences over the four relationships connected to gene expression noise. They show how introducing this third source of variability complicates the way of thinking evolvability and the emergence of biological novelty. Finally, cancer cells are proposed to be an ideal model to decipher the dynamic interplay between genetic, epigenetic, and gene expression variability when one of them is either experimentally increased or therapeutically targeted. This interplay is also discussed in an evolutionary perspective in the context of cancer cell drug resistance.

Keywords

• cancer evolution
• cell‐to‐cell heterogeneity
• chromatin
• DNA repair
• stochastic gene expression