Pikaard Craig S, Mittelsten Scheid Ortrun
Department of Biology, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405.
Gregor Mendel-Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, 1030 Vienna, Austria.
Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. 2014 Dec 1;6(12):a019315. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a019315.
The study of epigenetics in plants has a long and rich history, from initial descriptions of non-Mendelian gene behaviors to seminal discoveries of chromatin-modifying proteins and RNAs that mediate gene silencing in most eukaryotes, including humans. Genetic screens in the model plant Arabidopsis have been particularly rewarding, identifying more than 130 epigenetic regulators thus far. The diversity of epigenetic pathways in plants is remarkable, presumably contributing to the phenotypic plasticity of plant postembryonic development and the ability to survive and reproduce in unpredictable environments.
植物表观遗传学的研究有着悠久而丰富的历史，从非孟德尔基因行为的最初描述到染色质修饰蛋白和RNA的开创性发现，这些蛋白和RNA在包括人类在内的大多数真核生物中介导基因沉默。模式植物拟南芥中的遗传筛选尤其有成效，迄今为止已鉴定出130多种表观遗传调节因子。植物表观遗传途径的多样性非常显著，大概这有助于植物胚胎后发育的表型可塑性以及在不可预测环境中生存和繁殖的能力。
