Environmentally responsive genome-wide accumulation of de novo Arabidopsis thaliana mutations and epimutations.

ABSTRACT: Evolution is fueled by phenotypic diversity, which is in turn due to underlying heritable genetic (and potentially epigenetic) variation. While environmental factors are well known to influence the accumulation of novel variation in microorganisms and human cancer cells, the extent to which the natural environment influences the accumulation of novel variation in plants is relatively unknown. Here we use whole-genome and whole-methylome sequencing to test if a specific environmental stress (high-salinity soil) changes the frequency and molecular profile of accumulated mutations and epimutations (changes in cytosine methylation status) in mutation accumulation (MA) lineages of Arabidopsis thaliana. We first show that stressed lineages accumulate ∼100% more mutations, and that these mutation

SUBMITTER: Jiang C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4216923 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature