TET-mediated epimutagenesis of the Arabidopsis thaliana methylome

Lexiang Ji, William T. Jordan, Xiuling Shi, Lulu Hu, Chuan He and Robert J. Schmitz ()
Additional contact information
Lexiang Ji: University of Georgia
William T. Jordan: University of Georgia
Xiuling Shi: University of Georgia
Lulu Hu: University of Chicago
Chuan He: University of Chicago
Robert J. Schmitz: University of Georgia

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract DNA methylation in the promoters of plant genes sometimes leads to transcriptional repression, and the loss of DNA methylation in methyltransferase mutants results in altered gene expression and severe developmental defects. However, many cases of naturally occurring DNA methylation variations have been reported, whereby altered expression of differentially methylated genes is responsible for agronomically important traits. The ability to manipulate plant methylomes to generate epigenetically distinct individuals could be invaluable for breeding and research purposes. Here, we describe “epimutagenesis,” a method to rapidly generate DNA methylation variation through random demethylation of the Arabidopsis thaliana genome. This method involves the expression of a human ten–eleven translocation (TET) enzyme, and results in widespread hypomethylation that can be inherited to subsequent generations, mimicking mutants in the maintenance of DNA methyltransferase met1. Application of epimutagenesis to agriculturally significant plants may result in differential expression of alleles normally silenced by DNA methylation, uncovering previously hidden phenotypic variations.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-03289-7 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-03289-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03289-7

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().