title: Balance of power--dynamic regulation of chromatin in plant development.
abstract: Chromatin states profoundly determine and maintain gene activity and gene repression in eukaryotic organisms. Regulation of chromatin involves chromatin remodeling, chromatin modifications and exchange of chromatin components and is linked to DNA methylation in some cases. In plants and other organisms, chromatin proteins control many developmental pathways, integrate changes in the environment and can confer a cellular memory of these cues. Here, we review the molecular mechanisms that provide a dynamic regulation of chromatin in a cell. In addition, we discuss how chromatin needs to be flexibly regulated during plant growth to confer stable expression states that can occasionally be reset, e.g., owing to changes in the environment and progression of development.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Genetics, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lafos
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schubert
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002843:Chromatin / Q000378:metabolism*; D019175:DNA Methylation; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D006657:Histones / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008938:Mitosis; D059828:Plant Cells; D063245:Plant Development; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D002843:Chromatin; D006657:Histones