Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA.
Trends Plant Sci. 2024 Oct;29(10):1089-1102. doi: 10.1016/j.tplants.2024.04.008. Epub 2024 Jun 8.
Woody plants create the ecosystems they occupy and shape their biodiversity. Today's rapidly warming climate threatens these long-lived species by creating new environments in which existing populations become maladapted. Plants show enormous phenotypic diversity in response to environmental change, which can be caused by genotype or epigenetic mechanisms that influence the expression of the underlying DNA sequence. Whether epigenetics can affect ecologically important traits in trees is an important and controversial question. We explore the evidence that DNA methylation can affect gene expression, both directly and indirectly via its interaction with transposable elements (TEs), and subsequently shapes phenotypic variation in natural tree populations. Furthermore, we consider the potential of epigenetic approaches to assist in their conservation management strategies.
木本植物创造了它们所占据的生态系统，并塑造了它们的生物多样性。当今快速变暖的气候通过创造新的环境使现有种群变得不适应，从而威胁到这些寿命长的物种。植物对环境变化表现出巨大的表型多样性，这种变化可能是由影响潜在 DNA 序列表达的基因型或表观遗传机制引起的。表观遗传是否会影响树木中具有生态重要性的特征是一个重要且有争议的问题。我们探讨了 DNA 甲基化可以直接和间接（通过与转座元件 (TEs) 的相互作用）影响基因表达，并随后塑造自然树木种群表型变异的证据。此外，我们还考虑了采用表观遗传方法来协助其保护管理策略的潜力。
