Genetic and Epigenetic Changes in Plant Response to Abiotic Stress

A special issue of Genes (ISSN 2073-4425). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Genetics and Genomics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2021) | Viewed by 21383

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Center for Food and Bioconvergence, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
Interests: plant molecular biology; abscisic acid; signaling; transcription factor; epigenetics; drought tolerance; stress memory; transgenerational inheritance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The current global climate crisis raises habitual drought, high salinity, and abnormal temperatures (heat and cold), which have become a serious threat to crop productivity. Plants have evolved various strategies to cope with such stress conditions by exhibiting many physiological changes through the regulation of gene expression.

The genetic and epigentic changes can be memorized and transmitted to newly developed cells during vegetative growth, and even inherited by the next generation of plants. Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying stress memory and transgenerational inheritance might provide new methods for breeding higher-quality crops that can withstand adverse climatic conditions.

This Special Issue will focus on the genetic and epigenetic changes in plant responses to various abiotic stresses. Contributions regarding other related topics aimed at understanding the molecular mechanisms of abiotic stress tolerance responses in plants are also welcomed, including reviews and original research articles.

Dr. Jong-Joo Cheong
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • plant
  • abiotic stress
  • genetics
  • genomics
  • epigenetics
  • stress memory
  • transgenerational inheritance

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Editorial

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3 pages, 153 KiB  
Editorial
Genetic and Epigenetic Changes in Plants in Response to Abiotic Stress
by Jong-Joo Cheong
Genes 2021, 12(10), 1603; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12101603 - 12 Oct 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1142
Abstract
The current global climate crisis has led to drought, high salinity, and abnormal
temperatures (heat and cold), and is a serious threat to crop productivity. [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetic and Epigenetic Changes in Plant Response to Abiotic Stress)

Research

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9 pages, 1223 KiB  
Communication
The Tomato ddm1b Mutant Shows Decreased Sensitivity to Heat Stress Accompanied by Transcriptional Alterations
by Prashant Kumar Singh, Golan Miller, Adi Faigenboim and Michal Lieberman-Lazarovich
Genes 2021, 12(9), 1337; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12091337 - 28 Aug 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2314
Abstract
Heat stress is a major environmental factor limiting crop productivity, thus presenting a food security challenge. Various approaches are taken in an effort to develop crop species with enhanced tolerance to heat stress conditions. Since epigenetic mechanisms were shown to play a regulatory [...] Read more.
Heat stress is a major environmental factor limiting crop productivity, thus presenting a food security challenge. Various approaches are taken in an effort to develop crop species with enhanced tolerance to heat stress conditions. Since epigenetic mechanisms were shown to play a regulatory role in mediating plants’ responses to their environment, we investigated the role of DNA methylation in response to heat stress in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), an important vegetable crop. To meet this aim, we tested a DNA methylation-deficient tomato mutant, Slddm1b. In this short communication paper, we report phenotypic and transcriptomic preliminary findings, implying that the tomato ddm1b mutant is significantly less sensitive to heat stress compared with the background tomato line, M82. Under conditions of heat stress, this mutant line presented higher fruit set and seed set rates, as well as a higher survival rate at the seedling stage. On the transcriptional level, we observed differences in the expression of heat stress-related genes, suggesting an altered response of the ddm1b mutant to this stress. Following these preliminary results, further research would shed light on the specific genes that may contribute to the observed thermotolerance of ddm1b and their possibly altered DNA methylation status. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetic and Epigenetic Changes in Plant Response to Abiotic Stress)
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16 pages, 2618 KiB  
Article
Full-Length Transcriptome Sequencing and Comparative Transcriptome Analysis to Evaluate Drought and Salt Stress in Iris lactea var. chinensis
by Longjie Ni, Zhiquan Wang, Jinbo Guo, Xiaoxiao Pei, Liangqin Liu, Huogen Li, Haiyan Yuan and Chunsun Gu
Genes 2021, 12(3), 434; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12030434 - 18 Mar 2021
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3183
Abstract
Iris lactea var. chinensis (I. lactea var. chinensis) is a perennial herb halophyte with salt and drought tolerance. In this study, full-length transcripts of I. lactea var. chinensis were sequenced using the PacBio RSII sequencing platform. Moreover, the transcriptome was investigated [...] Read more.
Iris lactea var. chinensis (I. lactea var. chinensis) is a perennial herb halophyte with salt and drought tolerance. In this study, full-length transcripts of I. lactea var. chinensis were sequenced using the PacBio RSII sequencing platform. Moreover, the transcriptome was investigated under NaCl or polyethylene glycol (PEG) stress. Approximately 30.89 G subreads were generated and 31,195 unigenes were obtained by clustering the same isoforms by the PacBio RSII platform. A total of 15,466 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were obtained under the two stresses using the Illumina platform. Among them, 9266 and 8390 DEGs were obtained under high concentrations of NaCl and PEG, respectively. In total, 3897 DEGs with the same expression pattern under the two stresses were obtained. The transcriptome expression profiles of I. lactea var. chinensis under NaCl or PEG stress obtained in this study may provide a resource for the same and different response mechanisms against different types of abiotic stress. Furthermore, the stress-related genes found in this study can provide data for future molecular breeding. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetic and Epigenetic Changes in Plant Response to Abiotic Stress)
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21 pages, 18990 KiB  
Article
Identification and Characterization of the APX Gene Family and Its Expression Pattern under Phytohormone Treatment and Abiotic Stress in Populus trichocarpa
by Xue Leng, Hanzeng Wang, Shuang Zhang, Chunpu Qu, Chuanping Yang, Zhiru Xu and Guanjun Liu
Genes 2021, 12(3), 334; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12030334 - 25 Feb 2021
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 2485
Abstract
Ascorbate peroxidase (APX) is a member of class I of the heme-containing peroxidase family. The enzyme plays important roles in scavenging reactive oxygen species for protection against oxidative damage and maintaining normal plant growth and development, as well as in biotic stress responses. [...] Read more.
Ascorbate peroxidase (APX) is a member of class I of the heme-containing peroxidase family. The enzyme plays important roles in scavenging reactive oxygen species for protection against oxidative damage and maintaining normal plant growth and development, as well as in biotic stress responses. In this study, we identified 11 APX genes in the Populus trichocarpa genome using bioinformatic methods. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the PtrAPX proteins were classifiable into three clades and the members of each clade shared similar gene structures and motifs. The PtrAPX genes were distributed on six chromosomes and four segmental-duplicated gene pairs were identified. Promoter cis-elements analysis showed that the majority of PtrAPX genes contained a variety of phytohormone- and abiotic stress-related cis-elements. Tissue-specific expression profiles indicated that the PtrAPX genes primarily function in roots and leaves. Real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) analysis indicated that PtrAPX transcription was induced in response to drought, salinity, high ammonium concentration, and exogenous abscisic acid treatment. These results provide important information on the phylogenetic relationships and functions of the APX gene family in P. trichocarpa. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetic and Epigenetic Changes in Plant Response to Abiotic Stress)
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Review

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13 pages, 1352 KiB  
Review
Histone Acetylation Changes in Plant Response to Drought Stress
by Shuang Li, Xu He, Yuan Gao, Chenguang Zhou, Vincent L. Chiang and Wei Li
Genes 2021, 12(9), 1409; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12091409 - 13 Sep 2021
Cited by 24 | Viewed by 3617
Abstract
Drought stress causes recurrent damage to a healthy ecosystem because it has major adverse effects on the growth and productivity of plants. However, plants have developed drought avoidance and resilience for survival through many strategies, such as increasing water absorption and conduction, reducing [...] Read more.
Drought stress causes recurrent damage to a healthy ecosystem because it has major adverse effects on the growth and productivity of plants. However, plants have developed drought avoidance and resilience for survival through many strategies, such as increasing water absorption and conduction, reducing water loss and conversing growth stages. Understanding how plants respond and regulate drought stress would be important for creating and breeding better plants to help maintain a sound ecosystem. Epigenetic marks are a group of regulators affecting drought response and resilience in plants through modification of chromatin structure to control the transcription of pertinent genes. Histone acetylation is an ubiquitous epigenetic mark. The level of histone acetylation, which is regulated by histone acetyltransferases (HATs) and histone deacetylases (HDACs), determines whether the chromatin is open or closed, thereby controlling access of DNA-binding proteins for transcriptional activation. In this review, we summarize histone acetylation changes in plant response to drought stress, and review the functions of HATs and HDACs in drought response and resistance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetic and Epigenetic Changes in Plant Response to Abiotic Stress)
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17 pages, 341 KiB  
Review
Plants’ Epigenetic Mechanisms and Abiotic Stress
by Matin Miryeganeh
Genes 2021, 12(8), 1106; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12081106 - 21 Jul 2021
Cited by 58 | Viewed by 7576
Abstract
Plants are sessile organisms that need to adapt to constantly changing environmental conditions. Unpredictable climate change places plants under a variety of abiotic stresses. Studying the regulation of stress-responsive genes can help to understand plants’ ability to adapt to fluctuating environmental conditions. Changes [...] Read more.
Plants are sessile organisms that need to adapt to constantly changing environmental conditions. Unpredictable climate change places plants under a variety of abiotic stresses. Studying the regulation of stress-responsive genes can help to understand plants’ ability to adapt to fluctuating environmental conditions. Changes in epigenetic marks such as histone modifications and DNA methylation are known to regulate gene expression by their dynamic variation in response to stimuli. This can then affect their phenotypic plasticity, which helps with the adaptation of plants to adverse conditions. Epigenetic marks may also provide a mechanistic basis for stress memory, which enables plants to respond more effectively and efficiently to recurring stress and prepare offspring for potential future stresses. Studying epigenetic changes in addition to genetic factors is important to better understand the molecular mechanisms underlying plant stress responses. This review summarizes the epigenetic mechanisms behind plant responses to some main abiotic stresses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetic and Epigenetic Changes in Plant Response to Abiotic Stress)
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