Project description:Oxidative stress can arise when in vitro propagated plants developed under low light conditions are exposed to high light during transfer to ex vitro conditions. In such a situation, among the many potential stresses to which the transferred plant can be exposed, oxidative stress is commonly experienced, most likely brought about by absorption of light energy in excess of that required for very low levels of photosynthetic metabolism. In vitro propagated grapevine when transferred to ex vitro conditions with a 4 fold increase in PPFD shows an initial inhibition of PET accompanied by an accumulation of H2O2, suggesting a signal for the upregulation in gene expression and antioxidant enzyme activity, which peaked at 48h after transfer of in vitro grapevine to ex vitro growing conditions. When in vitro propagated plants are exposed to high light upon transfer to ex vitro oxidative stress symptoms occur. To determine whether the underlying pathways activated at the transfer of in vitro grapevine to ex vitro conditions reflect the processes occurring upon light stress we used microarrays. Leaves were harvested from in vitro grown plants immediately prior to transfer to ex vitro condition and 48h after transfer to compare gene expression before and after exposure of these plants to the high light conditions typical of ex vitro growth.
Project description:Cytosine methylation of DNA is a widespread modification of DNA that plays numerous critical roles, yet has been lost many times in diverse eukaryotic lineages. In the yeast Cryptococcus neoformans, CG methylation occurs in transposon-rich repeats and requires the DNA methyltransferase, Dnmt5. We show that Dnmt5 displays exquisite maintenance-type specificity in vitro and in vivo and utilizes similar in vivo cofactors as the metazoan maintenance methylase Dnmt1. Remarkably, phylogenetic and functional analysis revealed that the ancestral species lost the gene for a de novo methylase, DnmtX, between 50-150 MYA. We examined how methylation has persisted since the ancient loss of DnmtX. Experimental and comparative studies reveal efficient replication of methylation patterns in C. neoformans, rare stochastic methylation loss and gain events, and the action of natural selection. We propose that an epigenome has been propagated for >50 MY through a process analogous to Darwinian evolution of the genome.
Project description:Oxidative stress can arise when in vitro propagated plants developed under low light conditions are exposed to high light during transfer to ex vitro conditions. In such a situation, among the many potential stresses to which the transferred plant can be exposed, oxidative stress is commonly experienced, most likely brought about by absorption of light energy in excess of that required for very low levels of photosynthetic metabolism. In vitro propagated grapevine when transferred to ex vitro conditions with a 4 fold increase in PPFD shows an initial inhibition of PET accompanied by an accumulation of H2O2, suggesting a signal for the upregulation in gene expression and antioxidant enzyme activity, which peaked at 48h after transfer of in vitro grapevine to ex vitro growing conditions. When in vitro propagated plants are exposed to high light upon transfer to ex vitro oxidative stress symptoms occur. To determine whether the underlying pathways activated at the transfer of in vitro grapevine to ex vitro conditions reflect the processes occurring upon light stress we used microarrays.
Project description:5-methyl cytosine is widespread in plant genomes in both CG and non-CG contexts. During replication, hemi-methylation on parental DNA strands guides symmetric CG methylation on nascent strands, but non-CG methylation requires modified histones and small RNA guides. Here, we used immortalized Arabidopsis cell suspensions to sort replicating nuclei and determine genome-wide cytosine methylation dynamics during the plant cell cycle. We find that symmetric mCG and mCHG are selectively retained in actively dividing cells in culture, while mCHH is depleted. mCG becomes transiently asymmetric during S phase but is rapidly restored in G2, while mCHG remains asymmetric throughout the cell cycle. Hundreds of loci gain ectopic CHG methylation, as well as 24-nt small-interfering RNAs and H3K9me2, without gaining CHH methylation. This suggests that spontaneous epialelles that arise in plant cell cultures are stably maintained by small RNA independently of the canonical RNA-directed DNA methylation pathway. In contrast, loci that fail to produce siRNA are targeted for demethylation when cell cycle arrests. Comparative analysis with methylomes of various tissues and cell types suggests that loss of small RNA-directed non-CG methylation during DNA replication promotes germline reprogramming and epigenetic variation in plants propagated as clones.
Project description:Genome-wide DNA methylation analysis between long-term in vitro shoot culture and acclimatized apple plants DNA methylation is a process of epigenetic modification that can alter the functionality of a genome. Using whole-genome bisulfite sequencing, this study quantify the level of DNA methylation in the epigenomes of two diploid apple (Malus x domestica) scion cultivars ('McIntosh' and 'Húsvéti rozmaring') derived from three environmental conditions: in vivo mother plants in an orchard, in vitro culture, and acclimatized in vitro plants. The global DNA methylation levels were not dependent on the source of plant material. Significant differences in DNA methylation were identified in 586 out of 45,116 genes, including promoter and coding sequences, and classified as differentially methylated genes (DMGs). Differential methylation was visualised by an MA plot and functional genomic maps were established for biological processes, molecular functions and cellular components. Considering the DMGs, in vitro tissue culture resulted in the highest level of methylation, which decreased after acclimatization and tended to be similar to that in the mother tree. Methylation patterns of the two scions differed, indicating cultivar-specific epigenetic regulation of gene expression during adaptation to various environments. After selecting genes that displayed differences larger than ±10% in CpG and CHG contexts, or larger than ±1.35% in the CHH context from among the DMGs, they were annotated in Blast2GO v5.1.12 for Gene Ontology. These DNA methylation results suggest that epigenetic changes may contribute to the adaptation of apple to environmental changes by modifying gene expression.
Project description:Human pluripotent cell lines were derived from blastocyst-stage embryos and propagated in self-renewal conditions that maintain features of naive pluripotency characteristic of mouse embryonic stem cells. Genome-wide DNA methylation status of HNES1 and HNES3 naive and primed cells was assessed with post-bisulfite adapter tagging (PBAT).
Project description:DNA methylation functions in gene silencing and the maintenance of genome integrity. In plants, non-CG DNA methylation is linked through a self-reinforcing loop with histone 3 lysine 9 dimethylation (H3K9me2). The plant-specific SUPPRESSOR OF VARIEGATION 3–9 HOMOLOG (SUVH) family H3K9 methyltransferases (MTases) bind to DNA methylation marks and catalyze H3K9 methylation. Here, we analyzed the structure and function of Arabidopsis thaliana SUVH6 to understand how this class of enzyme maintains methylation patterns in the genome. We reveal that SUVH6 has a distinct 5mC base-flipping mechanism involving a thumb loop element. Autoinhibition of H3 substrate entry is regulated by a SET domain loop, and a conformational transition in the postSET domain upon cofactor binding may control catalysis. In vitro DNA binding and in vivo ChIP-seq data reveal that the different SUVH family H3K9 MTases have distinct DNA binding preferences, targeting H3K9 methylation to sites with different methylated DNA sequences, explaining the context biased non-CG DNA methylation in plants.
Project description:5-methyl cytosine is widespread in plant genomes in both CG and non-CG contexts. During replication, hemi-methylation on parental DNA strands guides symmetric CG methylation on nascent strands, but non-CG methylation requires modified histones and small RNA guides. Here, we used immortalized Arabidopsis cell suspensions to sort replicating nuclei and determine genome-wide cytosine methylation dynamics during the plant cell cycle. We find that symmetric mCG and mCHG are selectively retained in actively dividing cells in culture, while mCHH is depleted. mCG becomes transiently asymmetric during S phase but is rapidly restored in G2, while mCHG remains asymmetric throughout the cell cycle. Hundreds of loci gain ectopic CHG methylation, as well as 24-nt small-interfering RNAs and H3K9me2, without gaining CHH methylation. This suggests that spontaneous epialelles that arise in plant cell cultures are stably maintained by small RNA independently of the canonical RNA-directed DNA methylation pathway. In contrast, loci that fail to produce siRNA are targeted for demethylation when cell cycle arrests. Comparative analysis with methylomes of various tissues and cell types suggests that loss of small RNA-directed non-CG methylation during DNA replication promotes germline reprogramming and epigenetic variation in plants propagated as clones.