Environmental memory: transgenerational regulation of developmental transitions in Arabidopsis

AUTHIER AILEN; AUGE GABRIELA

Mendoza

Congreso; XVII Congreso Latinoamericano de Genética; 2019

Sociedad Argentina de Genética

Plants perceive and respond to environmentalchanges and can transfer that environmentalinformation to their progeny. Key developmentalprocesses such as germination and flowering can beinfluenced by the current environmental conditionsof a certain individual, as well as those experiencedby previous generations. Understanding themechanisms by which plants can transfer thisenvironmental memory to their progeny is criticalto interpret their adaptive value. Transgenerationalregulation of stress responses in Arabidopsisthaliana plants is associated with the function ofDicer-like 2 (DCL2), DCL3 and DCL4 genes, involvedin non-coding small RNA synthesis, and with DNAmethylation frequency changes inherited by theprogeny. These suggest that the RNA-directedDNA-methylation pathway (RdDM) would beinvolved in the control of progeny responses tothe maternal environment. In this work we aim toshed light on the role of the RdDM pathway in thetransgenerational control of progeny responses(seed provision and germination). Using Arabidopsisnull mutants of diverse genes involved in the RdDMpathway-dcl234, ago4-1, rdr2, rdr6, nrpd2a andrdd in Columbia background- we study how non-stressing temperature changes during the motherplant life cycle influence progeny development.Our results show that germination of the mutantsdiffer from the wild type depending on the maternalenvironment, which involves the RdDM pathwayin the regulation of transgenerational responses inplants to seasonal changes.