Review of induction of flowering by DNA demethylation in Perilla frutesencs and Silene armeria

YueLin LIU

42179054

The flowering process of many plants is regulated by gene expression, gene modification and/or environmental factors, such as temperature, night length and stress (K.C. Wada, et al, 2010). When talking about the gene modification, DNA methylation is always a crucial factor which is related to the plants’ vernalization. And also the methylation of DNA is a part of the epigenetic control. So in this research experiment, the authors focused on the cytidine analogue 5-azacytidine (azaC), which is commonly known as a methyltransferase inhibitor (C. Stresemann, et al, 2006), induced two kinds of plants, Perilla frutescens and Silene armeria, in order to find out the relationship between vernalization and DNA methylation and the heritability of the azaC induced effect in the offspring. What is more, they used methylation sensitive amplified fragment length polymorphism (MS-AFLP) analysis in these two plants so that the alterations of the DNA methylation states could be detected by changing the photoperiodic conditions.

Reference: Hiroshi Kondo, Takeshi Shiraya, Kaede C. Wada, Kiyotoshi Takeno. (2010). Induction of flowering by DNA demethylation in Perilla frutescens and Silene armeria: Heritability of 5-azacytidine-induced effects and alteration of the DNA methylation state by photoperiodic conditions. Plant Science, 178, 321-326