GSE118137
Cell-type specific transcriptome and histone modification dynamics during in situ cellular reprogramming in the Arabidopsis stomatal lineage [RNA-Seq]
Plants and plant cells exhibit extraordinary regenerative capacity, yet plant cells stably maintain their identities once acquired. Although this capacity was recognized more than 100 years ago, our mechanistic understanding of the establishment, maintenance, and erasure of cellular identities in plants remains limited. Here we develop a cell-type specific reprogramming system than can be probed at the genome-wide scale for alterations in gene expression and histone modifications before and during reprogramming. We show that the relationship between H3K27me3 and H3K4me3 and gene expression in a single cell type mirrors trends from more complex tissue, and that H3K27me3 dynamics is a critical regulator of guard cell identity. Further, guard cells can sense and resist inappropriate reprogramming, in part via regulation of the wounding response through H3K27me3. The matched single cell-type ChIP-seq and RNA-seq datasets created for this analysis also serve as a resource enabling inquiries into the dynamic and global-scale distribution of histone modifications. Overall design: Gene expression profiles of fully differentiated and reprogrammed Arabidopsis guard cells from 12 dpg plants.