title: Hypomethylated pollen bypasses the interploidy hybridization barrier in Arabidopsis.
abstract: Plants of different ploidy levels are separated by a strong postzygotic hybridization barrier that is established in the endosperm. Deregulated parent-of-origin specific genes cause the response to interploidy hybridizations, revealing an epigenetic basis of this phenomenon. In this study, we present evidence that paternal hypomethylation can bypass the interploidy hybridization barrier by alleviating the requirement for the Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) in the endosperm. PRC2 epigenetically regulates gene expression by applying methylation marks on histone H3. Bypass of the barrier is mediated by suppressed expression of imprinted genes. We show that the hypomethylated pollen genome causes de novo CHG methylation directed to FIS-PRC2 target genes, suggesting that different epigenetic modifications can functionally substitute for each other. Our work presents a method for the generation of viable triploids, providing an impressive example of the potential of epigenome manipulations for plant breeding.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Biology, Uppsala BioCenter, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Linnean Center of Plant Biology, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Schatlowski
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Biology, Uppsala BioCenter, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Linnean Center of Plant Biology, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden Department of Biology and Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Centre, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wolff
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Biology, Uppsala BioCenter, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Linnean Center of Plant Biology, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Santos-González
authors.affiliation: Gregor Mendel Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, 1030 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Vera
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Schoft
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Biology, Uppsala BioCenter, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Linnean Center of Plant Biology, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Alexey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Siretskiy
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, Bath BA2 4QR, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Rod
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.affiliation: Gregor Mendel Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, 1030 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Hisashi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tamaru
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Biology, Uppsala BioCenter, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Linnean Center of Plant Biology, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden claudia.kohler@slu.se.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Köhler
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D019175:DNA Methylation / Q000235:genetics*; D056625:Endosperm / Q000235:genetics; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D018745:Genome, Plant; D006824:Hybridization, Genetic; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D011003:Ploidies; D011058:Pollen / Q000235:genetics*; D011123:Polyploidy; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger