Arabidopsis MSH1 mutation alters the epigenome and produces heritable changes in plant growth

作者：Virdi Kamaldeep S; Laurie John D; Xu Ying Zhi; Yu Jiantao; Shao Mon Ray; Sanchez Robersy; Kundariya Hardik; Wang Dong; Riethoven Jean Jack M; Wamboldt Yashitola; Arrieta Montiel Maria P; Shedge Vikas; Mackenzie Sally A^*

来源：Nature Communications, 2015, 6(1): 6386.

DOI：10.1038/ncomms7386

Plant phenotypes respond to environmental change, an adaptive capacity that is at least partly transgenerational. However, epigenetic components of this interplay are difficult to measure. Depletion of the nuclear-encoded protein MSH1 causes dramatic and heritable changes in plant development, and here we show that crossing these altered plants with isogenic wild type produces epi-lines with heritable, enhanced growth vigour. Pericentromeric DNA hypermethylation occurs in a subset of msh1 mutants, indicative of heightened transposon repression, while enhanced growth epi-lines show large chromosomal segments of differential CG methylation, reflecting genome-wide reprogramming. When seedlings are treated with 5-azacytidine, root growth of epi-lines is restored to wild-type levels, implicating hypermethylation in enhanced growth. Grafts of wild-type floral stems to mutant rosettes produce progeny with enhanced growth and altered CG methylation strikingly similar to epi-lines, indicating a mobile signal when MSH1 is downregulated, and confirming the programmed nature of methylome and phenotype changes.

• 出版日期2015-2