DNA methylation in Arabidopsis has a genetic basis and shows evidence of local adaptation (original) (raw)
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Body-Methylated Genes in Arabidopsis thaliana Are Functionally Important and Evolve Slowly
Molecular Biology and Evolution, 2012
DNA methylation of coding regions, known as gene body methylation, is conserved across eukaryotic lineages. The function of body methylation is not known, but it may either prevent aberrant expression from intragenic promoters or enhance the accuracy of splicing. Given these putative functions, we hypothesized that body-methylated genes would be both longer and more functionally important than unmethylated genes. To test these hypotheses, we reanalyzed singlebase resolution bisulfite sequence data from Arabidopsis thaliana to differentiate body-methylated genes from unmethylated genes using a probabilistic approach. Contrasting genic characteristics between the two groups, we found that body-methylated genes tend to be longer and to be more functionally important, as measured by phenotypic effects of insertional mutants and by gene expression, than unmethylated genes. We also found that methylated genes evolve more slowly than unmethylated genes, despite the potential for increased mutation rates in methylated CpG dinucleotides. We propose that slower rates in body-methylated genes are a function of higher selective constraint, lower nucleosome occupancy, and a lower proportion of CpG dinucleotides.
Determining the conservation of DNA methylation in Arabidopsis
Epigenetics, 2009
A high-resolution map of DNA methylation in Arabidopsis has recently been generated using high-throughput sequencing of bisulfite-converted DNA. This detailed profile measures the methylation state of most of the cytosines in the Arabidopsis genome, and allows us for the first time to address questions regarding the conservation of methylation across duplicated regions of the genome. To address these questions we measured the degree to which methylation is conserved in both duplicated genes and duplicated non-coding regions of the genome. Methylation is controlled by different mechanisms and methyltransferases depending on the genomic location. Methylation in genes occurs primarily at CG sites and is controlled by the maintenance methyltransferase MET1. In contrast, an RNAi mediated methylation pathway that leads to de novo methylation of asymmetric CHH sites along with CG and CHG sites by the methyltransferase DRM2, drives methylation at tandem and inverted repeats. We find that the cytosine methylation profile is strongly preserved between duplicated genes and repeat regions. The highest level of conservation can be found at CG sites in genes and CHH sites in repeat regions. By constructing substitution matrices between aligned genes we see that methylated cytosines often pair with thymines, which may be explained by the spontaneous deamination of methyl-cytosine to thymine. Despite this observation, we find that methylated cytosines are less often paired with other nucleotides than non-methylated cytosines within gene bodies indicating that they may play an important functional role.
Genome-wide High-Resolution Mapping and Functional Analysis of DNA Methylation in Arabidopsis
Cell, 2006
Cytosine methylation is important for transposon silencing and epigenetic regulation of endogenous genes, although the extent to which this DNA modification functions to regulate the genome is still unknown. Here we report the first comprehensive DNA methylation map of an entire genome, at 35 base pair resolution, using the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana as a model. We find that pericentromeric heterochromatin, repetitive sequences, and regions producing small interfering RNAs are heavily methylated. Unexpectedly, over onethird of expressed genes contain methylation within transcribed regions, whereas only $5% of genes show methylation within promoter regions. Interestingly, genes methylated in transcribed regions are highly expressed and constitutively active, whereas promoter-methylated genes show a greater degree of tissuespecific expression. Whole-genome tiling-array transcriptional profiling of DNA methyltransferase null mutants identified hundreds of genes and intergenic noncoding RNAs with altered expression levels, many of which may be epigenetically controlled by DNA methylation.
PLoS Genetics, 2014
As Arabidopsis thaliana has colonized a wide range of habitats across the world it is an attractive model for studying the genetic mechanisms underlying environmental adaptation. Here, we used public data from two collections of A. thaliana accessions to associate genetic variability at individual loci with differences in climates at the sampling sites. We use a novel method to screen the genome for plastic alleles that tolerate a broader climate range than the major allele. This approach reduces confounding with population structure and increases power compared to standard genome-wide association methods. Sixteen novel loci were found, including an association between Chromomethylase 2 (CMT2) and temperature seasonality where the genome-wide CHH methylation was different for the group of accessions carrying the plastic allele. Cmt2 mutants were shown to be more tolerant to heat-stress, suggesting genetic regulation of epigenetic modifications as a likely mechanism underlying natural adaptation to variable temperatures, potentially through differential allelic plasticity to temperature-stress.
DNA Methylation and Plants Response to Biotic and Abiotic Stress
Trends in Sciences
DNA methylation is a conserved epigenetic modification that regulates, stabilizes, and maintains genomic integrity. Loss of DNA methylation or aberrant patterns of DNA methylation causes abnormalities in the gene regulation of plants. DNA methylation in plants is regulated by the combined action of de novo methylation, maintenance of methylation, and demethylation. The enzymes that regulate DNA methylation in plants are different but have some homology to that of mammalian DNA methylation enzymes. DNA methylation helps to develop adaptation mechanisms towards various biotic and abiotic stresses. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the DNA methylation pathway and its role in biotic and abiotic stress tolerances in plants. HIGHLIGHTS Plants responds to the changing climatic condition via epigenetic changes - changing the gene expression patterns, without changing the DNA sequences Abiotic and biotic stress leads to the differential expression of genes; furthermore, plants ha...
Evolutionary Ecology, 2010
Heritable phenotypic variation in plants can be caused not only by underlying genetic differences, but also by variation in epigenetic modifications such as DNA methylation. However, we still know very little about how relevant such epigenetic variation is to the ecology and evolution of natural populations. We conducted a greenhouse experiment in which we treated a set of natural genotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana with the demethylating agent 5-azacytidine and examined the consequences of this treatment for plant traits and their phenotypic plasticity. Experimental demethylation strongly reduced the growth and fitness of plants and delayed their flowering, but the degree of this response varied significantly among genotypes. Differences in genotypes’ responses to demethylation were only weakly related to their genetic relatedness, which is consistent with the idea that natural epigenetic variation is independent of genetic variation. Demethylation also altered patterns of phenotypic plasticity, as well as the amount of phenotypic variation observed among plant individuals and genotype means. We have demonstrated that epigenetic variation can have a dramatic impact on ecologically important plant traits and their variability, as well as on the fitness of plants and their ecological interactions. Epigenetic variation may thus be an overlooked factor in the evolutionary ecology of plant populations.
Genome-wide analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana DNA methylation uncovers an …
Nature genetics, 2006
Cytosine methylation, a common form of DNA modification that antagonizes transcription, is found at transposons and repeats in vertebrates, plants and fungi. Here we have mapped DNA methylation in the entire Arabidopsis thaliana genome at high resolution. DNA methylation covers ...
In Response to Abiotic Stress, DNA Methylation Confers EpiGenetic Changes in Plants
Plants, 2021
Epigenetics involves the heritable changes in patterns of gene expression determined by developmental and abiotic stresses, i.e., drought, cold, salinity, trace metals, and heat. Gene expression is driven by changes in DNA bases, histone proteins, the biogenesis of ncRNA, and changes in the nucleotide sequence. To cope with abiotic stresses, plants adopt certain changes driven by a sophisticated biological system. DNA methylation is a primary mechanism for epigenetic variation, which can induce phenotypic alterations in plants under stress. Some of the stress-driven changes in plants are temporary, while some modifications may be stable and inheritable to the next generations to allow them to cope with such extreme stress challenges in the future. In this review, we discuss the pivotal role of epigenetically developed phenotypic characteristics in plants as an evolutionary process participating in adaptation and tolerance responses to abiotic and biotic stresses that alter their gro...
2022
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have revealed that the striking natural variation for DNA CHH-methylation (mCHH; H is A, T, or C) of transposons has oligogenic architecture involving major alleles at a handful of known methylation regulators. Here we use a conditional GWAS approach to show that CHG-methylation (mCHG) has a similar genetic architecture — once mCHH is statistically controlled for. We identify five key trans-regulators that appear to modulate mCHG levels, and show that they interact with a previously identified modifier of mCHH in regulating natural transposon mobilization.
Century-scale Methylome Stability in a Recently Diverged Arabidopsis thaliana Lineage
PLoS Genetics, 2015
There has been much excitement about the possibility that exposure to specific environments can induce an ecological memory in the form of whole-sale, genome-wide epigenetic changes that are maintained over many generations. In the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, numerous heritable DNA methylation differences have been identified in greenhousegrown isogenic lines, but it remains unknown how natural, highly variable environments affect the rate and spectrum of such changes. Here we present detailed methylome analyses in a geographically dispersed A. thaliana population that constitutes a collection of near-isogenic lines, diverged for at least a century from a common ancestor. Methylome variation largely reflected genetic distance, and was in many aspects similar to that of lines raised in uniform conditions. Thus, even when plants are grown in varying and diverse natural sites, genome-wide epigenetic variation accumulates mostly in a clock-like manner, and epigenetic divergence thus parallels the pattern of genome-wide DNA sequence divergence.