This shows that even the more adaptive forms of plasticity (general responses and developmental selection) have some kind of trade off that would be negative in some way =. Illuminating the idea that no form of plasticity will be the "silver bullet" and that there is always a consequence in the plasticity of species.

This shows that there is no "best way" to adapt/acclimate to an environment because it is dependent on the phenotype induced. What may be a good phenotype in one environment won't be good for another. This in combination with the trade off of one phenotype for another may result in the extinction of a species instead of the rescue of the species.

This shows that the mechanisms that are evolved developmental switches will not do well in extreme environmental changes showing that an organism's "switch" may be maladaptive in new environment. This may be due to the different switches being way too specific resulting in organisms not being able to acclimate to extreme changes.

This may make it hard for scientists to come up with ways to provide people who may be missing certain microbes with the microbes that they need because one person's microbiome isn't the same as someone else's.

Interesting because I know that if the baby is overdue or needs to come out a week or two early the doctors often times ask if you would like to be induced or if you want a c-section. With a lot of people not being aware of the implications that c-sections have on infants they may elect to have a c-section instead of being induced.

Is this what they mean when they say that exposure to microbes/germs are more beneficial for your immune system?

What happens to those children that cannot be breastfed? Are they at a significant disadvantage when compared to kids that were breastfed? Does it depend on the individual?

This makes sense that having c-sections don't expose infants to the same type of microbes that vaginal births have but what are the long-term effects on the offspring? Is there a way that these infants can obtain similar microbes throughout their life?

Wasn't aware that our gut microbiota impacted all of these things as well. I thought that it just helped aid in digestion.

Could be why our microbiome is struggling due to the changing interactions with the environment.

Interesting how the evolution of humans in terms of modernisation is having a negative impact on adaptations that were once thought to be beneficial. Didn't realize that the modernisation of humans is impacting our microbiomes too.

Great example as to how epigenetics could help benefit conservation efforts.

Understanding epigenetic variation is key to conservation because as the environment becomes less stable epigenetic variation may be key in helping animals adapt quicker than genetic variation

Interesting to bring up the downside of epigenetics. Also brings up how conservation and epigenetics are intertwined

This is very interesting. It suggests that organisms with certain genotypes may have the specific epigenetic mechanisms that allow for more plasticity than organisms with different genotypes

In regards to question 5, this helps demonstrate why epigenetic mechanisms are relevant to people in human health because epigenetics may provide an explanation as to why certain people display the phenotypes they have based on the environments they were in during development. For example, someone who's mother went through periods of extreme stress while pregnant may express different phenotypes than someone's who's mother had a more calm pregnancy.

In reference to question 5, this statement shows that epigenetic mechanisms are relevant for both conservation biologists and people working in human health. This statement could explain why invasive species are as successful as they are at adapting to other environments as shown further down in the reading. It also is relevant to people working in the human health field because for example bacterial infections are a major problem in human health. When treated with antibiotics, one bacteria that expresses a phenotype that is advantageous to it's survival can replicate and continue to replicate causing the bacterial infection to get worse and the antibiotic becomes useless because it has already become antibiotic resistant.

In reference to question 4, this is an example of how epigenetics doesn't alter the DNA sequence (genetics) but instead uses DNA methylation (nongenetic) to change the gene expression of whether or not holly trees display prickly or nonprickly leaves based on the gleaning of mammals

In regards to question 4, this section talks about different types of epigenetic variation and how it either depends on the genotype or it can be "largely independent of genetic variation" showing that it is non genetic.

I think Wake's ideas about integrative biology are the way that science needs to be heading and hopefully already is since this article was published. Looking at a problem or research question through only one type of lens will never produce the same results as having people from many different disciplines looking at the same problem and attacking it from all different angles.