Aida Maric, Centre for Integrative Biological Signalling Studies <br>University of Freiburg
Aida Maric
Centre for Integrative Biological Signalling Studies
University of Freiburg
Research interests: epigenetics, abiotic stress, flooding, ethylene, methylation
Poster Number / Talk Time

Sunday session 2

Abstract:

Remember the rain: Epigenetic factors regulating flood stress memory in plants
A. MARIC , R. OSBORNE, M. WILBORTS, L. SCHEIBE, A. OBERFELL, D. J. GIBBS & S. HARTMAN
Plant Environmental Signalling and Development, Centre for Integrative Biological Signalling Studies (CIBSS), Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg 79104, Germany

Epigenetic regulation of memory has been well studied mechanism in eukaryotes. However, the ability of plants to epigenetically encode prior stress (i.e. stress memory) has only recently been reported. The current state-of-the art research supports the hypothesis that different epigenetic mechanisms play an important role in stress memory and regulation of response upon subsequent stress events. However, the capacity to epigenetically encode flooding stress memory has not been described in plants.

In order to understand the stress memory encoding mechanisms, we performed an RNA-Seq of Arabidopsis thaliana wild type and VERNALIZATION2 (VRN2) mutant plants. VRN2 is a regulator of plant chromatin signature whose mutant lacks flooding stress memory. Our preliminary results describe a transcriptional switch caused by priming stress that leads to a more targeted response upon subsequent flooding stress. This apparent encoding of the stress memory relies on several families of transcription factors (TFs). These TFs regulate the expression of a variety of tolerance genes that show flooding memory behaviour. Moreover, some of these tolerance genes are dependent on VRN2, connecting epigenetic regulation to stress memory. Collectively, genes showing memory of previous flooding events can be an important tool for improvement of future crops, ultimately responding to global food security crisis.

(this talk will not be recorded and will not be available on demand)

https://www.hartman-plantlab.com/
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