Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Instituto de Biologia, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Fisiologia Vegetal, Pelotas, Brasil.
Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Departamento de Fisiología, Biología, Molecular, y Celular, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
J Exp Bot. 2024 Oct 16;75(19):6159-6166. doi: 10.1093/jxb/erae236.
Plants synchronize their growth and development with environmental changes, which is critical for their survival. Among their life cycle transitions, seed germination is key for ensuring the survival and optimal growth of the next generation. However, even under favorable conditions, often germination can be blocked by seed dormancy, a regulatory multilayered checkpoint integrating internal and external signals. Intricate genetic and epigenetic mechanisms underlie seed dormancy establishment, maintenance, and release. In this review, we focus on recent advances that shed light on the complex mechanisms associated with physiological dormancy, prevalent in seed plants, with Arabidopsis thaliana serving as a model. Here, we summarize the role of multiple epigenetic regulators, but with a focus on histone modifications such as acetylation and methylation, that finely tune dormancy responses and influence dormancy-associated gene expression. Understanding these mechanisms can lead to a better understanding of seed biology in general, as well as resulting in the identification of possible targets for breeding climate-resilient plants.
植物通过与环境变化同步生长和发育，这对它们的生存至关重要。在它们的生命周期转变中，种子发芽是确保下一代生存和最佳生长的关键。然而，即使在有利条件下，种子休眠也常常会阻止发芽，种子休眠是一个整合内部和外部信号的多层次调节检查点。种子休眠的建立、维持和释放涉及复杂的遗传和表观遗传机制。在这篇综述中，我们重点介绍了最近的进展，这些进展揭示了与生理休眠相关的复杂机制，生理休眠在种子植物中很普遍，拟南芥作为模式植物。在这里，我们总结了多个表观遗传调节剂的作用，但重点是组蛋白修饰，如乙酰化和甲基化，它们可以精细地调节休眠反应并影响与休眠相关的基因表达。了解这些机制可以帮助我们更好地理解种子生物学，并且可能会确定培育抗气候植物的可能目标。
