Genetic and epigenetic control of plant heat responses

Plants have evolved sophisticated genetic and epigenetic regulatory systems to respond quickly to unfavorable environmental conditions such as heat, cold, drought, and pathogen infections. In particular, heat greatly affects plant growth and development, immunity and circadian rhythm, and poses a serious threat to the global food supply. According to temperatures exposing, heat can be usually classified as warm ambient temperature (about 22-27°C), high temperature (27-30°C) and extremely high temperature (37-42°C, also known as heat stress) for the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. The genetic mechanisms of plant responses to heat have been well studied, mainly focusing on elevated ambient temperature-mediated morphological acclimation and acceleration of flowering, modulation of circadian clock and plant immunity by high temperatures, and thermotolerance to heat stress. Recently, great progress has been achieved on epigenetic regulation of heat responses, including DNA methylation, histone modifications, histone variants, ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling, histone chaperones, small RNAs, long non-coding RNAs and other undefined epigenetic mechanisms. These epigenetic modifications regulate the expression of heat-responsive genes and function to prevent heat-related damages. This review focuses on recent progresses regarding the genetic and epigenetic control of heat responses in plants, and pays more attention to the role of the major epigenetic mechanisms in plant heat responses. Further research perspectives are also discussed.

Salicylic acid signalling: new insights and prospects at a quarter-century milestone

The plant hormone salicylic acid (SA) plays an essential role in the regulation of diverse biological processes throughout the entire lifespan of the plant. Twenty-five years ago, SA first emerged as an endogenous signal capable of inducing plant defence responses both at the site of infection and in the systemic tissue of the plant. Since then, SA-mediated signalling pathways have been extensively characterized and dissected using genetic and biochemical approaches. Current research is largely focused on the identification of novel SA downstream signalling genes, in order to understand their precise contributions to the phytohormonal cross-talk and signalling network. This will subsequently help us to identify novel targets that are important for plant health, and contribute to advances in modern agriculture. In this chapter we highlight recent advances in the field of SA biosynthesis and the discovery of candidates for systemic mobile signals. We also discuss the molecular mechanisms underlying SA perception. In addition, we review the novel SA signalling components that expand the scope of SA functions beyond plant immunity to include plant growth and development, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, DNA repair and homologous recombination. Finally, we shed light on the roles of SA in epigenetically controlled transgenerational immune memory that has long-term benefits for plants.

Deciphering the Epigenetic Alphabet Involved in Transgenerational Stress Memory in Crops

Although epigenetic modifications have been intensely investigated over the last decade due to their role in crop adaptation to rapid climate change, it is unclear which epigenetic changes are heritable and therefore transmitted to their progeny. The identification of epigenetic marks that are transmitted to the next generations is of primary importance for their use in breeding and for the development of new cultivars with a broad-spectrum of tolerance/resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses. In this review, we discuss general aspects of plant responses to environmental stresses and provide an overview of recent findings on the role of transgenerational epigenetic modifications in crops. In addition, we take the opportunity to describe the aims of EPI-CATCH, an international COST action consortium composed by researchers from 28 countries. The aim of this COST action launched in 2020 is: (1) to define standardized pipelines and methods used in the study of epigenetic mechanisms in plants, (2) update, share, and exchange findings in epigenetic responses to environmental stresses in plants, (3) develop new concepts and frontiers in plant epigenetics and epigenomics, (4) enhance dissemination, communication, and transfer of knowledge in plant epigenetics and epigenomics.

Deep inside the epigenetic memories of stressed plants

Recent evidence sheds light on the peculiar type of plant intelligence. Plants have developed complex molecular networks that allow them to remember, choose, and make decisions depending on the stress stimulus, although they lack a nervous system. Being sessile, plants can exploit these networks to optimize their resources cost-effectively and maximize their fitness in response to multiple environmental stresses. Even more interesting is the capability to transmit this experience to the next generation(s) through epigenetic modifications that add to the classical genetic inheritance. In this opinion article, we present concepts and perspectives regarding the capabilities of plants to sense, perceive, remember, re-elaborate, respond, and to some extent transmit to their progeny information to adapt more efficiently to climate change.

Epigenetic stress memory: A new approach to study cold and heat stress responses in plants

Understanding plant stress memory under extreme temperatures such as cold and heat could contribute to plant development. Plants employ different types of stress memories, such as somatic, intergenerational and transgenerational, regulated by epigenetic changes such as DNA and histone modifications and microRNAs (miRNA), playing a key role in gene regulation from early development to maturity. In most cases, cold and heat stresses result in short-term epigenetic modifications that can return to baseline modification levels after stress cessation. Nevertheless, some of the modifications may be stable and passed on as stress memory, potentially allowing them to be inherited across generations, whereas some of the modifications are reactivated during sexual reproduction or embryogenesis. Several stress-related genes are involved in stress memory inheritance by turning on and off transcription profiles and epigenetic changes. Vernalization is the best example of somatic stress memory. Changes in the chromatin structure of the Flowering Locus C (FLC) gene, a MADS-box transcription factor (TF), maintain cold stress memory during mitosis. FLC expression suppresses flowering at high levels during winter; and during vernalization, B3 TFs, cold memory cis-acting element and polycomb repressive complex 1 and 2 (PRC1 and 2) silence FLC activation. In contrast, the repression of SQUAMOSA promoter-binding protein-like (SPL) TF and the activation of Heat Shock TF (HSFA2) are required for heat stress memory. However, it is still unclear how stress memory is inherited by offspring, and the integrated view of the regulatory mechanisms of stress memory and mitotic and meiotic heritable changes in plants is still scarce. Thus, in this review, we focus on the epigenetic regulation of stress memory and discuss the application of new technologies in developing epigenetic modifications to improve stress memory.

Analysis of the transgenerational iron deficiency stress memory in Arabidopsis thaliana plants

We investigated the existence of the transgenerational memory of iron (Fe) deficiency stress, in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plants were grown under Fe deficiency/sufficiency, and so were their offspring. The frequency of somatic homologous recombination (SHR) events, of DNA strand breaks as well as the expression of the transcription elongation factor TFIIS-like gene increase when plants are grown under Fe deficiency. However, SHR frequency, DNA strand break events, and TFIIS-like gene expression do not increase further when plants are grown for more than one generation under the same stress, and furthermore, they decrease back to control values within two succeeding generations grown under control conditions, regardless of the Fe deficiency stress history of the mother plants. Seedlings produced from plants grown under Fe deficiency evolve more oxygen than control seedlings, when grown under Fe sufficiency: however, this trait is not associated with any change in the protein profile of the photosynthetic apparatus and is not transmitted to more than one generation. Lastly, plants grown for multiple generations under Fe deficiency produce seeds with greater longevity: however, this trait is not inherited in offspring generations unexposed to stress. These findings suggest the existence of multiple-step control of mechanisms to prevent a genuine and stable transgenerational transmission of Fe deficiency stress memory, with the tightest control on DNA integrity.

Cognitive and Memory Functions in Plant Immunity

From the time of Thucydides in the 5th century BC, it has been known that specific recognition of pathogens and memory formation are critical components of immune functions. In contrast to the immune system of jawed vertebrates, such as humans and mice, plants lack a circulatory system with mobile immune cells and a repertoire of clonally distributed antigen receptors with almost unlimited specificities. However, without these systems and mechanisms, plants can live and survive in the same hostile environment faced by other organisms. In fact, they achieve specific pathogen recognition and elimination, with limited self-reactivity, and generate immunological memory, sometimes with transgenerational characteristics. Thus, the plant immune system satisfies minimal conditions for constituting an immune system, namely, the recognition of signals in the milieu, integration of that information, subsequent efficient reaction based on the integrated information, and memorization of the experience. In the previous report, this set of elements was proposed as an example of minimal cognitive functions. In this essay, I will first review current understanding of plant immunity and then discuss the unique features of cognitive activities, including recognition of signals from external as well as internal environments, autoimmunity, and memory formation. In doing so, I hope to reach a deeper understanding of the significance of immunity omnipresent in the realm of living organisms.

Biochemical and Epigenetic Modulations under Drought: Remembering the Stress Tolerance Mechanism in Rice

A plant, being a sessile organism, needs to modulate biochemical, physiological, and molecular responses to the environment in a quick and efficient manner to be protected. Drought stress is a frequently occurring abiotic stress that severely affects plant growth, development, and productivity. Short- and long-term memories are well-known phenomena in animals; however, the existence of such remembrance in plants is still being discovered. In this investigation, different rice genotypes were imposed with drought stress just before flowering and the plants were re-watered for recovery from the stress. Seeds collected from the stress-treated (stress-primed) plants were used to raise plants for the subsequent two generations under a similar experimental setup. Modulations in physio-biochemical (chlorophyll, total phenolics and proline contents, antioxidant potential, lipid peroxidation) and epigenetic [5-methylcytosine (5-mC)] parameters were analyzed in the leaves of the plants grown under stress as well as after recovery. There was an increase in proline (>25%) and total phenolic (>19%) contents, antioxidant activity (>7%), and genome-wide 5-mC level (>56%), while a decrease (>9%) in chlorophyll content was recorded to be significant under the stress. Interestingly, a part of the increased proline content, total phenolics content, antioxidant activity, and 5-mC level was retained even after the withdrawal of the stress. Moreover, the increased levels of biochemical and epigenetic parameters were observed to be transmitted/inherited to the subsequent generations. These might help in developing stress-tolerant crops and improving crop productivity under the changing global climate for sustainable food production and global food security.

Priming Maritime Pine Megagametophytes during Somatic Embryogenesis Improved Plant Adaptation to Heat Stress

In the context of global climate change, forest tree research should be addressed to provide genotypes with increased resilience to high temperature events. These improved plants can be obtained by heat priming during somatic embryogenesis (SE), which would produce an epigenetic-mediated transgenerational memory. Thereby, we applied 37 °C or 50 °C to maritime pine (Pinus pinaster) megagametophytes and the obtained embryogenic masses went through the subsequent SE phases to produce plants that were further subjected to heat stress conditions. A putative transcription factor WRKY11 was upregulated in priming-derived embryonal masses, and also in the regenerated P37 and P50 plants, suggesting its role in establishing an epigenetic memory in this plant species. In vitro-grown P50 plants also showed higher cytokinin content and SOD upregulation, which points to a better responsiveness to heat stress. Heat exposure of two-year-old maritime pine plants induced upregulation of HSP70 in those derived from primed embryogenic masses, that also showed better osmotic adjustment and higher increases in chlorophyll, soluble sugars and starch contents. Moreover, ϕPSII of P50 plants was less affected by heat exposure. Thus, our results suggest that priming at 50 °C at the SE induction phase is a promising strategy to improve heat resilience in maritime pine.