title: Epigenetic events in plant male germ cell heat stress responses.
abstract: A review on pollen epigenetics. Plants grow in an ever-changing environment and are used to environmental fluctuations such as high and low temperatures during their life cycles. To cope with adverse conditions, plants have evolved intricate short-term and long-term mechanisms to respond and adapt to external stresses. The plant's ability to respond to stresses largely depends on its capacity to modulate the transcriptome rapidly and specifically. Epigenetic mechanisms, including DNA methylation, chromatin dynamics and small RNAs, play an essential role in the regulation of stress-responsive gene expression. Stress-related covalent modifications of DNA and histones can be passed on during mitosis and meiosis to the next generation and provide a memory that enables the plant and even its offspring to adopt better to a subsequent stress. Plant reproduction, in particular pollen development, is the most stress-sensitive process in the life cycle of the organism. In particular, developmental stages around the meiotic and mitotic divisions are the most vulnerable. In this review, we highlight the current understanding of epigenetic mechanisms involved in pollen development and speculate on their roles in pollen heat stress response.
authors.affiliation: GenXPro GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. ychen@genxpro.de.
authors.forename: Yuanyuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Plant Physiology, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Plant Physiology, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ivo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rieu
authors.affiliation: GenXPro GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Winter
mesh_terms: D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D006358:Hot Temperature; D011058:Pollen / Q000502:physiology*; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D000071436:Thermotolerance
keywords: Abiotic stress; Chromatin remodelling; DNA methylation; Flowering plant; Heat stress; Histone modification; Male germ cell development; Pollen; Small interfering RNA; Thermotolerance; Transposon; miRNA