Chemical memory in plants affects chances of offspring survival

Date:
December 1, 2020
Source:
University of Warwick
Summary:
Researchers have uncovered the mechanism that allows plants to
pass on their 'memories' to offspring, which results in growth
and developmental defects.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Researchers at the University of Warwick have uncovered the mechanism
that allows plants to pass on their 'memories' to offspring, which
results in growth and developmental defects.


==========================================================================
In order to survive and thrive, plants have the unique capability to sense
and remember changes in their environment. This is linked to the chemical modification of DNA and histone proteins, which alters the way in which
DNA is packaged within the cell's nucleus and genes are expressed --
a process known as epigenetic regulation.

Usually, this epigenetic information is reset during sexual reproduction
to erase any inappropriate 'memories' from being passed on to ensure
the offspring grows normally. In the paper, 'A new role for histone demethylases in the maintenance of plant genome integrity' published in
the journal elife, it was found that some plants were unable to forget
this information and passed it on to their offspring, thereby affecting
their chances of survival.

The researchers identified two proteins in Thale Cress (Arabidopsis), previously known only to control the initiation and timing of flowering,
that are also responsible for controlling 'plant memory' through the
chemical modification (demethylation) of histone proteins.

They showed that plants unable to reset these chemical marks during
sexual reproduction, passed on this 'memory' to subsequent generations, resulting in defects in growth and development.

Some of these defects were linked to the activation of selfish DNA
elements, also known as 'jumping genes' or transposons, thus indicating
that the erasure of such 'memory' is also critical for maintaining the integrity of plant genomes by silencing transposons.

Prof. Jose Gutierrez-Marcos, a senior author on the paper from the School
of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick commented: "Our study into
the proteins that regulate plant memory has shown how important it is
for chemical marks to be reset during sexual reproduction in order to
avoid offspring inheriting inappropriate 'memories' that lead to growth
and developmental defects associated with genome instability.

"The next step is to work out how to manipulate such 'memories' for
plant breeding purposes, so that subsequent generations show greater adaptability to allow them to thrive in a changing environment."

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Warwick. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Javier Antunez-Sanchez, Matthew Naish, Juan Sebastian Ramirez-Prado,
Sho
Ohno, Ying Huang, Alexander Dawson, Korawit Opassathian, Deborah
Manza- Mianza, Federico Ariel, Cecile Raynaud, Anjar Wibowo, Josquin
Daron, Minako Ueda, David Latrasse, R Keith Slotkin, Detlef Weigel,
Moussa Benhamed, Jose Gutierrez-Marcos. A new role for histone
demethylases in the maintenance of plant genome integrity. eLife,
2020; 9 DOI: 10.7554/ eLife.58533 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201201124115.htm

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