Chinese Bulletin of Botany ›› 2019, Vol. 54 ›› Issue (6): 779-785.DOI: 10.11983/CBB19137

• SPECIAL TOPICS • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Stress Memory Mediated by Epigenetic Modification in Plants

Wei Chen1,Yingzeng Yang1,2,Feng Chen1,2,Wenguan Zhou1,2,Kai Shu1,*()   

  1. 1 Research Center for Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710129, China
    2 Institute of Ecological Agriculture, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
  • Received:2019-07-18 Accepted:2019-10-17 Online:2019-11-01 Published:2020-07-09
  • Contact: Kai Shu

Abstract: Because of the fixed growth habits lacking of mobility, plants have innovated unique strategies to cope with variable environmental conditions. For their survival, plants have evolved mechanisms of stress memories to adapt to the adverse environments and thus protect themselves. Epigenetic modifications not only regulate the growth and development of plants, but also participate in responses to various abiotic and/or biotic stresses. Recent studies have shown that epigenetic modifications play important roles in the control of plant stress memory. In particular, DNA methylation, histone methylation, histone acetylation modification, and other modifications are involved in the formation and the maintenance of specific stress memories. This review highlights the recent advances of plant stress memories mediated by epigenetic modifications, and some key challenges in this field were discussed.

Key words: epigenetic modification, DNA methylation, histone modification, stress memory