salt stress induced variation in dna methylation pattern and its influence on gene expression in contrasting rice genotypes盐胁迫诱导dna甲基化模式的变化及其对基因表达的影响在不同水稻基因型.pdfVIP

Salt Stress Induced Variation in DNA Methylation Pattern and Its Influence on Gene Expression in Contrasting Rice Genotypes Ratna Karan, Teresa DeLeon, Hanamareddy Biradar, Prasanta K. Subudhi* School of Plant, Environmental, and Soil Sciences, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States of America Abstract Background: Salinity is a major environmental factor limiting productivity of crop plants including rice in which wide range of natural variability exists. Although recent evidences implicate epigenetic mechanisms for modulating the gene expression in plants under environmental stresses, epigenetic changes and their functional consequences under salinity stress in rice are underexplored. DNA methylation is one of the epigenetic mechanisms regulating gene expression in plant’s responses to environmental stresses. Better understanding of epigenetic regulation of plant growth and response to environmental stresses may create novel heritable variation for crop improvement. Methodology/Principal Findings: Methylation sensitive amplification polymorphism (MSAP) technique was used to assess the effect of salt stress on extent and patterns of DNA methylation in four genotypes of rice differing in the degree of salinity tolerance. Overall, the amount of DNA methylation was more in shoot compared to root and the contribution of fully methylated loci was always more than hemi-methylated loci. Sequencing of ten randomly selected MSAP fragments indicated gene-body specific DNA methylation of retrotransposons, stress responsive genes, and chromatin modification genes, distributed on different rice chromosomes. Bisulphite sequencing and quantitative RT-PCR analysis of selected MSAP loci showed that cytosine methylation changes under salinity as well as gene expre