Recent Posts

Develop your own niche to be seen in the field

Part of the Self-Reflection; series by and for early-career researchers We all are different. We all like different things. We all think, behave and react differently. Therefore to suggest a list, to actions to follow with the aim to develop a niche and instruct how to be noticed in…

59th Annual JSPP meeting

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a short review from Hokkaido, Japan This year’s annual meeting of Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists (JSPP) was in the northern part of Japan, Sapporo city, from 28 – 30 March. It’s comparatively colder region compared to the last year’s venue, Kagoshima. Sapporo is the capital of…

DNA methylation dynamics during early plant life

DNA methylation is extensively reprogrammed in the early embryo and germlines of mammals, whereas flowering plants do not show such extensive resetting except in the endosperm. Active DNA demethylation in the central cell and reduced activity of DNA methyltransferases leads to global hypomethylation…

Extensive transcriptomic and epigenomic remodelling occurs during Arabidopsis thaliana germination

Understanding the complex regulatory mechanisms that contribute to germination and seedling establishment requires integration of gene-expression, transcription factors (TFs), DNA methylation, smallRNA data, and their interactions. Narsai et al. describe the first dynamic transcription factor network…

Comparison of the relative potential for epigenetic and genetic variation to contribute to trait stability

Epigenetic variation, both natural and induced, can influence heritable phenotypic variation of complex traits. Understanding the effect of epigenetic changes on trait variation is complicated by the confounding effects of DNA sequence polymorphisms. To overcome this complication, epigenetic recombinant…

Similarity between soybean and Arabidopsis seed methylomes and loss of non-CG methylation does not affect seed development

Different parts of the seed have distinct genetic origins and functions. The seed coat is maternally derived from ovule integuments, whereas the embryo descends from the fertilized egg and the endosperm from the central cell. Lin et al. profiled the methylome landscape during seed development and germination…

TET-mediated epimutagenesis of the Arabidopsis thaliana methylome

Natural and induced DNA methylation variations are known to alter gene expression changes that may ultimately be important for agronomically important traits. Epigenetically manipulating plant methylomes to create heritable changes can be invaluable in crop improvement programs. Ji et al. describe the…

Loss of mCHH islands in maize chromomethylase and DDM1-type nucleosome remodeler mutants

Plant DNA methylation in different sequence contexts is catalyzed by distinct types of methyltransferases. METHYLTRANSFERASE 1 (MET1) is responsible for CG methylation, CHROMOMETHYLASE (CMT1, 2, and 3) methylates CHG and CHH, while DOMAINS REARRANGED METHYLTRANSFERASE (DRM1 and 2) methylates in all three…

What We're Reading: April 20th

This week’s issue of What We’re Reading is guest edited by Sunil Kumar Kenchanmane Raju, a postdoc in Chad Niederhuth's lab at Michigan State University. He is interested in understanding the epigenetic and epigenomic diversity across land plants. Sunil is a postdoc ambassador of ASPB and social…