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AUREATE_Erhöhte Widerstandsfähigkeit nach Vererbung von Epimutationen

Fachliche Zuordnung Genetik und Genomik der Pflanzen
Förderung Förderung von 2018 bis 2021
Projektkennung Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 355708846
 
Erstellungsjahr 2021

Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse

Epigenetics is the science that describes heritable phenotypic changes independent of alterations of the DNA sequence. Popular science frequently suggests that we should include epigenetics in our way of thinking about evolution, reconsider Lamarckian inheritance, and accept the notion that we -as organisms- are masters of our genes by controlling nutrition and lifestyle. Among biologists, the term is rather used to describe how cells of an organism can acquire very different shapes and functions during development, despite having the same genetic information. Mechanistically, epigenetics describes the organization of the genome within the nucleus, which determines the accessibility and activity of the underlying sequence information. AUREATE focused to a large extent on DNA methylation, a chemical modification of one of the DNA bases, which is a well-studied epigenetic mark that can be copied during replication and interacts with a range of proteins. Importantly, epigenetic mechanisms play a role in defense against genomic invaders: they can control virus amplification and selfish genetic elements called transposons. Epigenetic control over transposon activity is particularly critical in the germline, the cells that connect one generation with the next. In addition, epigenetic mechanisms have been implicated not only in responses to biotic stress – microbial infections – but also abiotic stress. In AUREATE, we used an elegant model system to study the epigenetic inheritance of DNA methylation in cells contributing to the plant germline as well as how the rules of epigenetic inheritance through the germline could be bypassed by clonal propagation. In the small annual plant Arabidopsis, it is well established that DNA methylation can or cannot be heritable. We carried out experiments to perturb DNA methylation by applying heat or salt stress and using mutant plants defective in the enzymes necessary for catalyzing methylation of DNA. A novelty of our approach was that we established methods to isolate stem cells from growing shoot tips, which later form flowers and thus egg and sperm cells. We found exciting differences between the stem cells and the surrounding somatic cells and discovered that there are even different types of stem cells - those which are part of the germline and those which are not. In parallel, we could show that bypassing sexual reproduction through induction of embryos from somatic tissue causes epigenetic changes depending on the tissue of origin and genetic background used, that these changes are inherited subsequently through sexual reproduction, and that they can affect relevant traits such as abiotic stress resistance.

Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)

 
 

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