Epigenetics Lessons from the Garden: Vernalization across Life Histories of Crucifers

Dear Colleagues,

The field of epigenetics investigates ways in which environmental factors/our lifestyle choices can impact growth, development, and human health based on inheritance principles other than those derived from DNA sequence alone. Plants are unique organisms not only in nature but also are irreplaceable as amenable experimental systems, free of ethical issues.

Vernalization, which enables the timing of reproductive phase transition at the seasonal transition to spring based on the prolonged cold of winter, is arguably the most prominent phenomena with epigenetic hallmarks in plants. The mechanistic insights emerging from this plant-specific process apply generally to epigenetic control of gene expression in eukaryotes.

Vernalization is versatile in nature and agriculture; within the crucifer family alone, a variety of life histories, local ecotypes, and crop varieties evolved/were bred with an overwintering requirement. This also indicates the versatility of the underlying epigenetic mechanism. Yet, so far, exceptionally well characterized is mainly the annual form of the model crucifer Arabidopsis thaliana. This Special Issue aims to expand studies on vernalization to other life histories as well as to explore the stochastic nature of transcription and chromatin-related events, preferably by combining molecular biology with theoretical approaches outside this field, i.e., mathematical (Steffen et al 2012, Satake and Iwasa 2012).

Some examples of submissions encouraged for this Special Issue could come from the following areas: cell and developmental biology of meristem transition in perennial/natural ecotypes/crops of crucifers (Hempel and Feldman 1993, Suh et al 2003); studies exploring the temperature range that elicits the vernalization response (Wollenberg and Amasino 2012), evolutionary analysis of cis variation at FLC homologues (Shindo et al 2006, Kiefer et al 2017; mathematical modeling (Angel et al 2011, Satake and Iwasa 2012, Nishio et al 2020); studies on the degree of stability in FLC expression (Nakamura et al 2017, Perilleaux et al 2013), and more.

Dr. Diana Mihaela Buzas
Guest Editor

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