Epigenetic regulation of stress responses in plants

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Gene expression driven by developmental and stress cues often depends on nucleosome histone post-translational modifications and sometimes on DNA methylation. A number of studies have shown that these DNA and histone modifications play a key role in gene expression and plant development under stress. Most of these stress-induced modifications are reset to the basal level once the stress is relieved, while some of the modifications may be stable, that is, may be carried forward as ‘stress memory’ and may be inherited across mitotic or even meiotic cell divisions. Epigenetic stress memory may help plants more effectively cope with subsequent stresses. Comparative studies on stress-responsive epigenomes and transcriptomes will enhance our understanding of stress adaptation of plants.

Introduction

Information content of the genome (DNA sequence) and its expression in response to stress are crucial for the adaptability of a genotype. Expression of the genome is influenced by chromatin structure, which is governed by processes often associated with epigenetic regulation, namely histone variants, histone post-translational modifications, and DNA methylation. Developmental and environmental signals can induce epigenetic modifications in the genome, and thus, the single genome in a plant cell gives rise to multiple epigenomes in response to developmental and environmental cues [1]. Understanding stress-induced epigenetic processes in stress tolerance of plants requires answers to the following questions: How much of the stress-induced gene expression changes are associated with alterations in DNA methylation and histone modification marks? Are stress-induced DNA and histone modifications during acclimation or during the first experience of stress memorized and inherited mitotically and meiotically? What are the adaptive values of epigenetic stress memory? This review briefly describes epigenetic processes, and then focuses on recent data on the epigenetic regulation of stress responses and its heritability in plants.

Section snippets

Epigenetic regulation of stress responses

Retention of stress memory for short durations is well known in plants, as evident from acclimation responses [2, 3]. The stress memory can be retained for only short durations if the memory depends on the half-life of stress-induced proteins, RNAs, and metabolites, while the memory can last longer if it involves reprogramming in phenology and morphology of plants. Epigenetic processes, that is, stable or heritable DNA methylation and histone modifications, can also be a choice of retaining

Plant development under stress

Reprogramming of cell differentiation in response to environmental stress leads to phenological and developmental plasticity, which are important mechanisms of stress resistance. Phenotypic plasticity helps adjust the durations of various phenological phases in plants, and thus allows plants to avoid exposure of critical growth phases, and especially reproductive development, to stress. Further, adjustment of growth and development is critical for effective use of resources under stress.

Stress memory

UV-C radiation or flagellin (an elicitor of plant defense) induced a high frequency of somatic homologous recombination, and the hyper-recombination state was transmitted as a dominant trait to untreated progenies of stress-treated parents [48••]. Similarly, tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) infection resulted in a high frequency of somatic and meiotic recombination rates in tobacco. The progeny of TMV-infected plants exhibited hypomethylation in several leucine-rich repeat (LRR)-containing loci and a

Conclusions

Stress-induced changes in histone variants, histone N-tail modifications, and DNA methylation have been shown to regulate stress-responsive gene expression and plant development under stress. Transient chromatin modifications mediate acclimation response. Heritable, epigenetic modifications may provide within-generation and transgenerational stress memory (Figure 1). It is unclear how much of the stress-induced histone and DNA modification changes that have been observed to date may be

Conflict of interest

There is no conflict of interest relating to this article.

References and recommended reading

Papers of particular interest, published within the period of review, have been highlighted as:

  • • of special interest

  • •• of outstanding interest

Acknowledgements

The work in J-KZ lab was supported by National Institutes of Health grants R01GM070795 and R01GM059138.

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