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Altered H3K27 trimethylation contributes to flowering time variations in polyploid Arabidopsis thaliana ecotypes.

Jinping ChengGuiqian ZhangLinhao XuChang LiuHua Jiang
Published in: Journal of experimental botany (2021)
Polyploidy is a widespread phenomenon in flowering plant species. Polyploid plants frequently exhibit considerable transcriptomic alterations after whole-genome duplication (WGD). It is known that the transcriptomic response to tetraploidization is ecotype-dependent in Arabidopsis. Nevertheless, the biological significance and the underlying mechanism are unknown. Here, we showed that 4x Col-0 and 4x Ler presented different flowering times, with a delayed flowering time in 4x Col-0 but not in 4x Ler. We found that the expression of FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC), the major repressor of flowering, was significantly increased in 4x Col-0 but subtle change in 4x Ler. Moreover, the level of a repressive epigenetic mark, trimethylation of histone H3 at lysine 27 (H3K27me3), was significantly decreased in 4x Col-0 but not in 4x Ler, potentially leading to different transcription levels of FLC and flowering time in 4x Col-0 and 4x Ler. Apart from the FLC locus, hundreds of genes showed H3K27me3 alterations in 4x Col-0 and 4x Ler. Comparably, LIKE HETEROCHROMATIN PROTEIN 1 (LHP1) and transcription factors required for H3K27me3 deposition presented transcriptional changes between 4x Col and Ler, which potentially account for differential H3K27me3 alterations in 4x Col-0 and Ler. Last, we found that the natural 4x Arabidopsis ecotype Wa-1 presented early flowering time, associated with low expression and high H3K27me3 of FLC. Taken together, our results showed a role of H3K27me3 alterations in response to genome duplication in Arabidopsis autopolyploids and that flowering time variation potentially functions in autopolyploid speciation.
Keyphrases
  • arabidopsis thaliana
  • transcription factor
  • poor prognosis
  • gene expression
  • single cell
  • binding protein
  • dna methylation
  • dna binding
  • long non coding rna
  • small molecule
  • protein protein
  • heat shock protein