Cytosine Methylation Alteration in Natural Populations of Leymus chinensis Induced by Multiple Abiotic Stresses

Abstract

BackgroundHuman activity has a profound effect on the global environment and caused frequent occurrence of climatic fluctuations. To survive, plants need to adapt to the changing environmental conditions through altering their morphological and physiological traits. One known mechanism for phenotypic innovation to be achieved is environment-induced rapid yet inheritable epigenetic changes. Therefore, the use of molecular techniques to address the epigenetic mechanisms underpinning stress adaptation in plants is an important and challenging topic in biological research. In this study, we investigated the impact of warming, nitrogen (N) addition, and warming+nitrogen (N) addition stresses on the cytosine methylation status of Leymus chinensis Tzvel. at the population level by using the amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP), methylation-sensitive amplified polymorphism (MSAP) and retrotransposon based sequence-specific amplification polymorphism (SSAP) techniques.Methodology/Principal FindingsOur results showed that, although the percentages of cytosine methylation changes in SSAP are significantly higher than those in MSAP, all the treatment groups showed similar alteration patterns of hypermethylation and hypomethylation. It meant that the abiotic stresses have induced the alterations in cytosine methylation patterns, and the levels of cytosine methylation changes around the transposable element are higher than the other genomic regions. In addition, the identification and analysis of differentially methylated loci (DML) indicated that the abiotic stresses have also caused targeted methylation changes at specific loci and these DML might have contributed to the capability of plants in adaptation to the abiotic stresses.Conclusions/SignificanceOur results demonstrated that abiotic stresses related to global warming and nitrogen deposition readily evoke alterations of cytosine methylation, and which may provide a molecular basis for rapid adaptation by the affected plant populations to the changed environments.

Single-base-resolution methylomes of populus trichocarpa reveal the association between DNA methylation and drought stress

“…Numerous studies have shown that DNA methylation levels could be affected by plant stress in Arabidopsis , rice, pea and other plants [15-18], but few about trees. Uthup et al have reported the identification of DNA methylation patterns and their putative relationship with abiotic stress in the tree crop Hevea brasiliensis [14].…”

Analysis of DNA methylation of perennial ryegrass under drought using the methylation-sensitive amplification polymorphism (MSAP) technique

“…Most importantly, using this method, the cytosine methylation level within the global genome and specific loci can be analyzed without advance knowledge of the DNA sequence. MSAP has been widely employed to detect cytosine methylation in various plants, such as maize (Shan et al 2013), wheat (Meng et al 2012), banana (Baurens et al 2003), and Leymus chinensis (Yu et al 2013b).…”

DNA Methylation in Rehmannia glutinosa Roots Suffering from Replanting Disease

“…It has been proposed that methylation alterations affect a gene's transcription, with methylation tending to repress it and demethylation to activate it (Richards, 1997;Yu et al, 2013;Nicotra et al, 2015). Of the 31 differentially methylated MSAP fragments (representing 12 classes of methylation/demethylation changes) isolated and sequenced, twelve were demethylated in the plants exposed to replanting disease, and the other 19 were methylated.…”