Eyeing Emergence: Modified Treatments for Terminating Dormancy of Conifer Seeds

Feurtado, J. Allan; Kermode, Allison R.

doi:10.1007/978-1-61779-231-1_4

“…The seeds of this conifer species are deeply dormant at maturity and upon dispersal they typically require a minimum of 6 months of moist chilling in natural stands to terminate dormancy [40]. There is a marked conservation of the functions of the ABI3 orthologs of evolutionarily distant species, including angiosperms, conifers and even mosses [27], [41]–[43].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionarily Conserved Histone Methylation Dynamics during Seed Life-Cycle Transitions

Müller

¹

,

Bouyer

²

,

Schnittger

³

et al. 2012

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Plants have a remarkable ability to react to seasonal changes by synchronizing life-cycle transitions with environmental conditions. We addressed the question of how transcriptional re-programming occurs in response to an environmental cue that triggers the major life cycle transition from seed dormancy to germination and seedling growth. We elucidated an important mechanistic aspect of this process by following the chromatin dynamics of key regulatory genes with a focus on the two antagonistic marks, H3K4me3 and H3K27me3. Histone methylation patterns of major dormancy regulators changed during the transition to germination and seedling growth. We observed a switch from H3K4me3 and high transcription levels to silencing by the repressive H3K27me3 mark when dormancy was broken through exposure to moist chilling, underscoring that a functional PRC2 complex is necessary for this transition. Moreover, this reciprocal regulation by H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 is evolutionarily conserved from gymnosperms to angiosperms.

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“…Having found that major dormancy regulators such as ABI3 are transcriptionally regulated at the chromatin level in Arabidopsis, we asked whether the same is true for an evolutionarily distant species, the gymnosperm yellow-cedar (Callitropsis nootkatensis). The seeds of this conifer species are deeply dormant at maturity and upon dispersal they typically require a minimum of 6 months of moist chilling in natural stands to terminate dormancy [40]. There is a marked conservation of the functions of the ABI3 orthologs of evolutionarily distant species, including angiosperms, conifers and even mosses [27,[41][42][43].…”

Section: Changes In Histone Methylation Of the Abi3 Gene A Major Regu...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Correction: Evolutionarily Conserved Histone Methylation Dynamics during Seed Life-Cycle Transitions

Müller¹,

Bouyer²,

Schnittger³

et al. 2013

PLoS ONE

0

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Plants have a remarkable ability to react to seasonal changes by synchronizing life-cycle transitions with environmental conditions. We addressed the question of how transcriptional re-programming occurs in response to an environmental cue that triggers the major life cycle transition from seed dormancy to germination and seedling growth. We elucidated an important mechanistic aspect of this process by following the chromatin dynamics of key regulatory genes with a focus on the two antagonistic marks, H3K4me3 and H3K27me3. Histone methylation patterns of major dormancy regulators changed during the transition to germination and seedling growth. We observed a switch from H3K4me3 and high transcription levels to silencing by the repressive H3K27me3 mark when dormancy was broken through exposure to moist chilling, underscoring that a functional PRC2 complex is necessary for this transition. Moreover, this reciprocal regulation by H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 is evolutionarily conserved from gymnosperms to angiosperms.

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“…The transition from a growth-arrested seed to a germinating seed represents a crucial developmental switch in the life cycle of a plant [ 1 ]. Seeds of several annuals, including Arabidopsis, develop dormancy during the late stages of their development: although mature, these seeds are not capable of germinating even under favourable environmental conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The DAG1 transcription factor negatively regulates the seed-to-seedling transition in Arabidopsis acting on ABA and GA levels

Boccaccini

¹

,

Lorrai

²

,

Ruta

³

et al. 2016

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BackgroundIn seeds, the transition from dormancy to germination is regulated by abscisic acid (ABA) and gibberellins (GAs), and involves chromatin remodelling. Particularly, the repressive mark H3K27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) has been shown to target many master regulators of this transition. DAG1 (DOF AFFECTING GERMINATION1), is a negative regulator of seed germination in Arabidopsis, and directly represses the GA biosynthetic gene GA3ox1 (gibberellin 3-β-dioxygenase 1). We set to investigate the role of DAG1 in seed dormancy and maturation with respect to epigenetic and hormonal control.ResultsWe show that DAG1 expression is controlled at the epigenetic level through the H3K27me3 mark during the seed-to-seedling transition, and that DAG1 directly represses also the ABA catabolic gene CYP707A2; consistently, the ABA level is lower while the GA level is higher in dag1 mutant seeds. Furthermore, both DAG1 expression and protein stability are controlled by GAs.ConclusionsOur results point to DAG1 as a key player in the control of the developmental switch between seed dormancy and germination.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12870-016-0890-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Eyeing Emergence: Modified Treatments for Terminating Dormancy of Conifer Seeds

Cited by 4 publications

References 13 publications

Evolutionarily Conserved Histone Methylation Dynamics during Seed Life-Cycle Transitions

Evolutionarily Conserved Histone Methylation Dynamics during Seed Life-Cycle Transitions

Correction: Evolutionarily Conserved Histone Methylation Dynamics during Seed Life-Cycle Transitions

The DAG1 transcription factor negatively regulates the seed-to-seedling transition in Arabidopsis acting on ABA and GA levels

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