title: The progeny of Arabidopsis thaliana plants exposed to salt exhibit changes in DNA methylation, histone modifications and gene expression.
abstract: Plants are able to acclimate to new growth conditions on a relatively short time-scale. Recently, we showed that the progeny of plants exposed to various abiotic stresses exhibited changes in genome stability, methylation patterns and stress tolerance. Here, we performed a more detailed analysis of methylation patterns in the progeny of Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) plants exposed to 25 and 75 mM sodium chloride. We found that the majority of gene promoters exhibiting changes in methylation were hypermethylated, and this group was overrepresented by regulators of the chromatin structure. The analysis of DNA methylation at gene bodies showed that hypermethylation in the progeny of stressed plants was primarily due to changes in the 5' and 3' ends as well as in exons rather than introns. All but one hypermethylated gene tested had lower gene expression. The analysis of histone modifications in the promoters and coding sequences showed that hypermethylation and lower gene expression correlated with the enrichment of H3K9me2 and depletion of H3K9ac histones. Thus, our work demonstrated a high degree of correlation between changes in DNA methylation, histone modifications and gene expression in the progeny of salt-stressed plants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Andriy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bilichak
authors.forename: Yaroslav
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ilnystkyy
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hollunder
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kovalchuk
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D001947:Breeding; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D019175:DNA Methylation / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics; D017930:Genes, Reporter / Q000187:drug effects; D006657:Histones / Q000378:metabolism*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000187:drug effects; D011499:Protein Processing, Post-Translational / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D012100:Reproduction, Asexual / Q000502:physiology; D055049:Salt Tolerance / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics*; D055051:Salt-Tolerant Plants / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012965:Sodium Chloride / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D006657:Histones; D012965:Sodium Chloride