Abstract: Epigenetic variation within species can complement genetic variation as a significant source of phenotypic and functional diversity in natural plant populations. Population epigenetics has been developed for the study of epigenetics in wild species. As a main method in population epigenetics, methylationsensitive amplification polymorphism (MSAFLP or MSAP) analysis has been often used to assess methylcytosine changes though it has many limitations. Reduced representation bisulphite sequencing (RRBS) approach based on nextgeneration sequencing could be a powerful tool in ecological studies. Epigenetics has been applied in the fields of ecology and evolution to explore topics including the relationship between epigenetic variation and genetic variation, epigenetic mechanism of phenotypic plasticity, epigenetic differences in heterogeneous habitats, and epigenetics in polyploidy and speciation events. The important role of epigenetic processes in ecology and evolution has been demonstrated. In this paper we present an overview of the latest research progress of epigenetics in ecology and evolution, and describe the future studies of population epigenetics in plants.

Key words: salt stress, peanut, nutrients, calcium fertilizer