title: Transgenerational phenotypic and epigenetic changes in response to heat stress in Arabidopsis thaliana.
abstract: Exposure to heat stress causes physiological and epigenetic changes in plants, which may also be altered in the progeny. We compared the progeny of stressed and control Arabidopsis thaliana wild type and Dicer-like mutant dcl2, dcl3, and dcl4 plants for variations in physiology and molecular profile, including global genome methylation, mRNA levels, and histone modifications in the subset of differentially expressed genes at normal conditions and in response to heat stress. We found that the immediate progeny of heat-stressed plants had fewer, but larger leaves, and tended to bolt earlier. Transposon expression was elevated in the progeny of heat-stressed plants, and heat stress in the same generation tended to decrease global genome methylation. Progeny of stressed plants had increased expression of HSFA2, and reduction in MSH2, ROS1, and several SUVH genes. Gene expression positively correlated with permissive histone marks and negatively correlated with repressive marks. Overall, the progeny of heat stressed plants varied in both their physiology and epigenome and dcl2 and dcl3 mutants were partially deficient for these changes.
authors: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB Canada.
authors: Zoë
authors: Z
authors: Migicovsky
authors: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB Canada.
authors: Youli
authors: Y
authors: Yao
authors: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB Canada.
authors: Igor
authors: I
authors: Kovalchuk
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D019175:DNA Methylation / Q000235:genetics; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements / Q000235:genetics; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D018745:Genome, Plant; D018869:Heat-Shock Response / Q000235:genetics*; D006657:Histones / Q000378:metabolism; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D009929:Organ Size / Q000235:genetics; D010641:Phenotype; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D011499:Protein Processing, Post-Translational; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012639:Seeds / Q000033:anatomy & histology
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D006657:Histones; D012333:RNA, Messenger
keywords: Arabidopsis thaliana; Dicer-like mutants dcl2; and dcl4; dcl3; epigenetic response; heat stress; stress tolerance; transgenerational effects