scholarly journals Epigenetic Modifications in Plant Development and Reproduction

Epigenomes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Vladimir Brukhin ◽  
Emidio Albertini

Plants are exposed to highly fluctuating effects of light, temperature, weather conditions, and many other environmental factors throughout their life. As sessile organisms, unlike animals, they are unable to escape, hide, or even change their position. Therefore, the growth and development of plants are largely determined by interaction with the external environment. The success of this interaction depends on the ability of the phenotype plasticity, which is largely determined by epigenetic regulation. In addition to how environmental factors can change the patterns of genes expression, epigenetic regulation determines how genetic expression changes during the differentiation of one cell type into another and how patterns of gene expression are passed from one cell to its descendants. Thus, one genome can generate many ‘epigenomes’. Epigenetic modifications acquire special significance during the formation of gametes and plant reproduction when epigenetic marks are eliminated during meiosis and early embryogenesis and later reappear. However, during asexual plant reproduction, when meiosis is absent or suspended, epigenetic modifications that have arisen in the parental sporophyte can be transmitted to the next clonal generation practically unchanged. In plants that reproduce sexually and asexually, epigenetic variability has different adaptive significance. In asexuals, epigenetic regulation is of particular importance for imparting plasticity to the phenotype when, apart from mutations, the genotype remains unchanged for many generations of individuals. Of particular interest is the question of the possibility of transferring acquired epigenetic memory to future generations and its potential role for natural selection and evolution. All these issues will be discussed to some extent in this review.

Author(s):  
Vladimir Brukhin ◽  
Emidio Albertini

Plants are exposed to highly fluctuating effects of light, temperature, weather conditions and many other environmental factors throughout their life. As sessile or-ganisms, unlike animals, they are unable to escape, hide or even change their position. Therefore, the growth and development of plants is largely determined by interaction with the external environment, the success of this interaction depends on the ability of the phenotype plasticity, which is largely determined by epigenetic regulation. In addi-tion to how environmental factors can change the patterns of genes expression, epige-netic regulation determines how genetic expression changes during the differentiation of one cell type into another, and how patterns of gene expression are passed from one cell to its descendants. Thus, one genome can generate many 'epigenomes'. Epigenetic modifications acquire special significance during the formation of gametes and plant reproduction, when epigenetic marks are eliminated during meiosis and early embry-ogenesis and later reappear. However, during asexual plant reproduction, when meio-sis is absent or suspended, epigenetic modifications that have arisen in the parental sporophyte can be transmitted to the next clonal generation practically unchanged. In plants that reproduce sexually and asexually, epigenetic variability has different adap-tive significance. In asexuals, epigenetic regulation is of particular importance for im-parting plasticity to the phenotype, when the genotype remains unchanged for many generations of individuals. Of particular interest is the question of the possibility of transferring acquired epigenetic memory to future generations and its potential role for natural selection and evolution. All these issues will be discussed to some extent in this review. In the last two decades, a lot of data on the epigenetic regulation of plants has appeared, as well as works summarizing the accumulated knowledge (Verhoeven and Preite 2013; Pikaard and Scheid 2014; Gehring 2019; Ono and Kinoshita 2021), nevertheless, many questions remain unclear, and a number of results are contradic-tory. New in this area data is constantly emerging. We tried to take into account and discuss the main findings and conclusions in this field.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanjun Lu ◽  
Yau-Tuen Chan ◽  
Hor-Yue Tan ◽  
Sha Li ◽  
Ning Wang ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abolfazl Mohammadbeigi ◽  
Salman Khazaei ◽  
Hamidreza Heidari ◽  
Azadeh Asgarian ◽  
Shahram Arsangjang ◽  
...  

AbstractObjectivesLeishmaniasis is a neglected and widespread parasitic disease that can lead to serious health problems. The current review study aimed to synthesize the relationship between ecologic and environmental factors (e.g., weather conditions, climatology, temperature and topology) and the incidence of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) in the Old World.ContentA systematic review was conducted based on English, and Persian articles published from 2015 to 2020 in PubMed/Medline, Science Direct, Web of Science and Google Scholar. Keywords used to search articles were leishmaniasis, environmental factors, weather condition, soil, temperature, land cover, ecologic* and topogr*. All articles were selected and assessed for eligibility according to the titles or abstracts. The quality screening process of articles was carried out by two independent authors. The selected articles were checked according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria.Summary and outlookA total of 827 relevant records in 2015–2020 were searched and after evaluating the articles, 23 articles met the eligibility criteria; finally, 14 full-text articles were included in the systematic review. Two different categories of ecologic/environmental factors (weather conditions, temperature, rainfall/precipitation and humidity) and land characteristics (land cover, slope, elevation and altitude, earthquake and cattle sheds) were the most important factors associated with CL incidence.ConclusionsTemperature and rainfall play an important role in the seasonal cycle of CL as many CL cases occurred in arid and semiarid areas in the Old World. Moreover, given the findings of this study regarding the effect of weather conditions on CL, it can be concluded that designing an early warning system is necessary to predict the incidence of CL based on different weather conditions.


Author(s):  
Shuang Cai ◽  
Shuang Quan ◽  
Guangxin Yang ◽  
Meixia Chen ◽  
Qianhong Ye ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTWith the increasing maternal age and the use of assisted reproductive technology in various countries worldwide, the influence of epigenetic modification on embryonic development is increasingly notable and prominent. Epigenetic modification disorders caused by various nutritional imbalance would cause embryonic development abnormalities and even have an indelible impact on health in adulthood. In this scoping review, we summarize the main epigenetic modifications in mammals and the synergies among different epigenetic modifications, especially DNA methylation, histone acetylation, and histone methylation. We performed an in-depth analysis of the regulation of various epigenetic modifications on mammals from zygote formation to cleavage stage and blastocyst stage, and reviewed the modifications of key sites and their potential molecular mechanisms. In addition, we discuss the effects of nutrition (protein, lipids, and one-carbon metabolism) on epigenetic modification in embryos and emphasize the importance of various nutrients in embryonic development and epigenetics during pregnancy. Failures in epigenetic regulation have been implicated in mammalian and human early embryo loss and disease. With the use of reproductive technologies, it is becoming even more important to establish developmentally competent embryos. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate the extent to which embryos are sensitive to these epigenetic modifications and nutrition status. Understanding the epigenetic regulation of early embryo development will help us make better use of reproductive technologies and nutrition regulation to improve reproductive health in mammals.


Author(s):  
Jeong Soo Park ◽  
Hak Sub Shin ◽  
Chul-hyun Choi ◽  
Jinhee Kim ◽  
Junghyo Lee

Regional declines of the Korean fir (Abies koreana) have been observed since the 1980s on the subalpine region. To explain this decline, it is fundamental to investigate the degree to which environmental factors have contributed to plant distributions on diverse spatial scales. We applied a hierarchical regression model to determine quantitatively the relationship between the abundance of Korean fir (seedlings) and diverse environmental factors across two different ecological scales. We measured Korean fir density and the occurrence of its seedlings in 102 (84) plots nested at five sites and collected a range of environmental factors at the same plots. Our model included hierarchical explanatory variables at both site-level (weather conditions) and plot-level (micro-topographic factors, soil properties, and competing species). The occurrence of Korean fir seedlings was positively associated with moss cover and rock cover but negatively related to dwarf bamboo cover. On site-level, winter precipitation was significantly positively related to the occurrence of seedlings. A hierarchical Poisson regression model revealed that Korean fir density were negatively associated with slope aspect, topographic position index, Quercus mongolica cover, and mean summer temperature. Our results suggest that drought and competition with other species are factors which halt the survival of Korean fir. We can predict that the population of Korean fir will continue to decline on the Korean Peninsula due to rising temperatures and seasonal drought, and only a few Korean fir will survive on northern slopes or valleys where competition with dwarf bamboo and Q. mongolica can be avoided.


Oncotarget ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (16) ◽  
pp. 12562-12590 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khaled Elmasry ◽  
Riyaz Mohamed ◽  
Isha Sharma ◽  
Nehal M. Elsherbiny ◽  
Yutao Liu ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 1341-1351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qing-Di Cheng ◽  
Rui-Qing Chen ◽  
Jin He ◽  
Da-Wei Li ◽  
Fan Yang ◽  
...  

Protein crystallization is a delicate process that is always sensitive to environmental factors. When the environmental factors are not well controlled or not controlled at all, identical crystallization droplets from the same mother liquid may yield different crystallization results. One environmental factor, the weather conditions during crystallization solution preparation, is not usually considered as a parameter for protein crystallization. In this paper, it is shown that the weather parameters during preparation of the crystallization experiment, including the ambient temperature, humidity, pressure and particulate matter in the air, can all affect the reproducibility of lysozyme crystallization. An identical lysozyme crystallization experiment was repeated for an entire year, and the weather conditions when each crystallization experiment was set up were recorded along with the crystallization results. Among the parameters recorded, the humidity during the experiment setup showed the strongest effect on lysozyme crystallization. On the basis of these results, it is suggested that the weather conditions during crystallization solution preparation should be considered as a potential factor that can influence protein crystallization.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiaying He ◽  
Tatiana Loboda ◽  
Nancy French ◽  
Dong Chen

<p>Tundra fires are common across the pan-Arctic region, particularly in Alaska. Fires lead to significant impacts on terrestrial carbon balance and ecosystem functioning in the tundra. They can even affect the forage availability of herbivorous wildlife and living resources of local human communities. Also, interactions between fire and climate change can enhance the fire impacts on the Arctic ecosystems. However, the drivers and mechanisms of wildland fire occurrences in Alaskan tundra are still poorly understood. Research on modeling contemporary fire probability in the tundra is also lacking. This study focuses on exploring the critical environmental factors controlling wildfire occurrences in Alaskan tundra and modeled the fire ignition probability, accounting for ignition source, fuel types, fire weather conditions, and topography. The fractional cover maps of fuel type components developed Chapter 2 serve as input data for fuel type distribution. The probability of cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning and fire weather conditions are simulated using WRF. Topographic features are also calculated from the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data. Additionally, fire ignition locations are extracted from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) active fire product for Alaskan tundra from 2001 to 2019. Empirical modeling methods, including RF and logistic regression, are then utilized to model the relationships between environmental factors and wildfire occurrences in the tundra and to evaluate the roles of these factors. Our results suggested that CG lightning is the primary driver controlling fire ignitions in the tundra, while warmer and drier weather conditions also support fires. We also projected future potential of wildland fires in this tundra region with Coupled Model Intercomparison Projects Phase 6 (CMIP6) data. The results of this study highlight the important role of CG lightning in driving tundra fires and that incorporating CG lightning modeling is necessary and essential for fire monitoring and management efforts in the High Northern Latitudes (HNL).</p>


Author(s):  
Terence Cavanaugh ◽  
Elinor A. Scheirer

Distance-learning courses are primarily designed for Internet-based asynchronous delivery of instruction. This case describes the use of Web 2.0 GIS technologies to create a graphic representation of student locations on an interactive map. This class map then became a multi-purpose resource for online class members and the instructor: to locate and highlight students’ distances from the instructor and among themselves; to remind the instructor to be sensitive to possible effects of locations on students due to environmental factors such as weather conditions; to help the instructor tailor proximity-based resources or course requirements for students; to help the instructor connect distance-learning students with each other geographically for group projects based on their locations; and to facilitate the efforts of students and the instructor in identifying locally available resources relevant to their coursework.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Mannavola ◽  
Stella D’Oronzo ◽  
Mauro Cives ◽  
Luigia Stefania Stucci ◽  
Girolamo Ranieri ◽  
...  

Cutaneous melanoma shows a high metastatic potential based on its ability to overcome the immune system’s control. The mechanisms activated for these functions vary extremely and are also represented by the production of a number of extracellular vesicles including exosomes. Other vesicles showing a potential role in the melanoma progression include oncosomes and melanosomes and the majority of them mediate tumor processes including angiogenesis, immune regulation, and modifications of the micro-environment. Moreover, a number of epigenetic modifications have been described in melanoma and abundant production of altered microRNAs (mi-RNAs), non-coding RNAs, histones, and abnormal DNA methylation have been associated with different phases of melanoma progression. In addition, exosomes, miRNAs, and other molecular factors have been used as potential biomarkers reflecting disease evolution while others have been suggested to be potential druggable molecules for therapeutic application.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document