Conserved imprinting associated with unique epigenetic signatures in the Arabidopsis genus.

ABSTRACT: In plants, imprinted gene expression occurs in endosperm seed tissue and is sometimes associated with differential DNA methylation between maternal and paternal alleles(1). Imprinting is theorized to have been selected for because of conflict between parental genomes in offspring(2), but most studies of imprinting have been conducted in Arabidopsis thaliana, an inbred primarily self-fertilizing species that should have limited parental conflict. We examined embryo and endosperm allele-specific expression and DNA methylation genome-wide in the wild outcrossing species Arabidopsis lyrata. Here we show that the majority of A. lyrata imprinted genes also exhibit parentally biased expression in A. thaliana, suggesting that there is evolutionary conservation in gene imprinting. Surprisingly, we

SUBMITTER: Klosinska M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5367468 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature