Transgenerational, dynamic methylation of stomata genes in response to low relative humidity

Tricker, P. J., Rodríguez López, C. M., Gibbings, G., Hadley, P. and Wilkinson, M. J. (2013) Transgenerational, dynamic methylation of stomata genes in response to low relative humidity. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 14 (4). pp. 6674-6689. ISSN 1422-0067 doi: 10.3390/ijms14046674

Abstract/Summary

Transgenerational inheritance of abiotic stress-induced epigenetic modifications in plants has potential adaptive significance and might condition the offspring to improve the response to the same stress, but this is at least partly dependent on the potency, penetrance and persistence of the transmitted epigenetic marks. We examined transgenerational inheritance of low Relative Humidity-induced DNA methylation for two gene loci in the stomatal developmental pathway in Arabidopsis thaliana and the abundance of associated short-interfering RNAs (siRNAs). Heritability of low humidity-induced methylation was more predictable and penetrative at one locus (SPEECHLESS, entropy ≤ 0.02; χ2 < 0.001) than the other (FAMA, entropy ≤ 0.17; χ2 ns). Methylation at SPEECHLESS correlated positively with the continued presence of local siRNAs (r2 = 0.87; p = 0.013) which, however, could be disrupted globally in the progeny under repeated stress. Transgenerational methylation and a parental low humidity-induced stomatal phenotype were heritable, but this was reversed in the progeny under repeated treatment in a previously unsuspected manner.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/39363
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Publisher	MDPI
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