Ferreira Liliana J, Donoghue Mark T A, Barros Pedro, Saibo Nelson J, Santos Ana Paula, Oliveira M Margarida
Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Genomics of Plant Stress. Av. da República, 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA.
Epigenomes. 2019 Jan 18;3(1):4. doi: 10.3390/epigenomes3010004.
Chromatin structure, DNA methylation, and histone modifications act in a concerted manner to influence gene expression and therefore plant phenotypes. Environmental stresses are often associated with extensive chromatin rearrangements and modifications of epigenetic levels and patterns. Stress-tolerant plants can be a good tool to unveil potential connections between specific epigenetic modifications and stress tolerance capacity. We analyzed genome wide DNA methylation of a salt-tolerant rice variety under salinity and identified a set of differentially methylated regions (DMRs) between control and stress samples using high-throughput sequencing of DNA immunoprecipitated with the 5-methylcytosine antibody (MeDIP-Seq). The examination of DNA methylation pattern at DMRs regions revealed a general tendency for demethylation events in stress samples as compared to control. In addition, DMRs appear to influence the expression of genes located in their vicinity. We hypothesize that short regions as DMRs can shape the chromatin landscape of specific genomic regions and, therefore, may modulate the function of several genes. In this sense, the identification of DMRs represents one step towards to uncover new players in the regulation of stress-responsive genes and new target genes with potential application in enhancement of plant salinity-tolerance.
染色质结构、DNA甲基化和组蛋白修饰协同作用，影响基因表达，进而影响植物表型。环境胁迫通常与广泛的染色质重排以及表观遗传水平和模式的改变有关。耐逆植物可能是揭示特定表观遗传修饰与耐逆能力之间潜在联系的良好工具。我们分析了耐盐水稻品种在盐胁迫下的全基因组DNA甲基化情况，并使用5-甲基胞嘧啶抗体免疫沉淀DNA的高通量测序（MeDIP-Seq），鉴定了对照样品和胁迫样品之间的一组差异甲基化区域（DMR）。对DMR区域的DNA甲基化模式检查发现，与对照相比，胁迫样品中存在去甲基化事件的总体趋势。此外，DMR似乎会影响其附近基因的表达。我们推测，像DMR这样的短区域可以塑造特定基因组区域的染色质景观，因此可能调节多个基因的功能。从这个意义上说，DMR的鉴定是朝着揭示胁迫响应基因调控中的新参与者以及在提高植物耐盐性方面具有潜在应用价值的新靶基因迈出的一步。
