Journal Article

The Dynamic Changes of DNA Methylation and Histone Modifications of Salt Responsive Transcription Factor Genes in Soybean

Song, Yuguang, Ji, Dandan, Wang, Peng, Li, Qiang, Xiang, Fengning, Li, Shuo

2012

Overview

Epigenetic modification contributes to the regulation of gene expression and plant development under salinity stress. Here we describe the identification of 49 soybean transcription factors by microarray analysis as being inducible by salinity stress. A semi-quantitative RT-PCR-based expression assay confirmed the salinity stress inducibility of 45 of these 49 transcription factors, and showed that ten of them were up-regulated when seedlings were exposed to the demethylation agent 5-aza-2-deoxycytidine. Salinity stress was shown to affect the methylation status of four of these ten transcription factors (one MYB, one b-ZIP and two AP2/DREB family members) using a combination of bisulfite sequencing and DNA methylation-sensitive DNA gel blot analysis. ChIP analysis indicated that the activation of three of the four DNA methylated transcription factors was correlated with an increased level of histone H3K4 trimethylation and H3K9 acetylation, and/or a reduced level of H3K9 demethylation in various parts of the promoter or coding regions. Our results suggest a critical role for some transcription factors' activation/repression by DNA methylation and/or histone modifications in soybean tolerance to salinity stress.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Acetylation / Agriculture / Analysis / Arabidopsis / Azacitidine - pharmacology / Biology / Bisulfite / Chromatin / Cytosine - chemistry / Demethylation / Deoxyribonucleic acid / DNA / DNA - chemistry / DNA - metabolism / DNA binding proteins / DNA Methylation / DNA microarrays / DNA sequencing / Engineering / Epigenesis, Genetic / Epigenetic inheritance / Epigenetics / Gene expression / Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Gene sequencing / Gene silencing / Genes / Genetic aspects / Genomes / Germplasm / Glycine max / Glycine max - genetics / Glycine max - metabolism / Histones - chemistry / Histones - metabolism / Laboratories / Life sciences / Methylation / Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Oryza / Plant genetics / Polymerase chain reaction / Promoter Regions, Genetic / Proteins / Salinity / Salinity effects / Salts / Salts - chemistry / Seedlings / Sequence Analysis, DNA / Soybeans / Stress / Stresses / Sulfites / Thymine - chemistry / Transcription activation / Transcription factors / Transcription Factors - metabolism / Transcriptional Activation