Methylation variation promotes phenotypic diversity and evolutionary potential in a millenium-old clonal seagrass meadow

Evolutionary theory predicts that clonal organisms are more susceptible to extinction than sexually reproducing organisms, due to low genetic variation and slow rates of genetic evolution. However, plants that reproduce clonally are among the oldest living organisms on our planet. We show for the first time that epigenetic variation is associated with ecologically important phenotypic variation in clonal seagrass meadows and, thus, may contribute to the long-term survival of clonal plants.