Paradoxes of Plant Epigenetics

• Published in: Russian journal of developmental biology Vol. 52; no. 6; pp. 355 - 369
• Main Author: Ezhova, T. A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 01.11.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animal Anatomy; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Developmental Biology; Environmental conditions; Epigenetics; Genomes; Histology; Lability; Life Sciences; Morphology; Reviews; epigenetics of plants; polyvariance of development; molecular mechanisms of plasticity of ontogenesis
• ISSN: 1062-3604; 1608-3326
• DOI: 10.1134/S1062360421060047

Plants have a unique ability to adapt ontogenesis to changing environmental conditions and the influence of stress factors. This ability is based on the existence of two specific features of epigenetic regulation in plants, which seem to be mutually exclusive at first glance. On the one hand, plants are capable of partial epigenetic reprogramming of the genome, which can lead to adaptation of physiology and metabolism to changed environmental conditions as well as to changes in ontogenesis programs. On the other hand, plants can show amazing stability of epigenetic modifications and the ability to transmit them to vegetative and sexual generations. The combination of these inextricably linked epigenetic features not only ensures survival in the conditions of a sessile lifestyle but also underlies a surprisingly wide morphological diversity of plants, which can lead to the appearance of morphs within one population and the existence of interpopulation morphological differences. The review discusses the molecular genetic mechanisms that cause a paradoxical combination of the stability and lability properties of epigenetic modifications and underlie the polyvariance of ontogenesis. We also consider the existing approaches for studying the role of epigenetic regulation in the manifestation of polyvariance of ontogenesis and discuss their limitations and prospects.