Harnessing epigenetic variability for crop improvement: current status and future prospects.
Genes Genomics
; 44(3): 259-266, 2022 03.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34807374
BACKGROUND: The epigenetic mechanisms play critical roles in a vast diversity of biological processes of plants, including development and response to environmental challenges. Particularly, DNA methylation is a stable epigenetic signature that supplements the genetics-based view of complex life phenomena. In crop breeding, the decrease in genetic diversity due to artificial selection of conventional breeding methods has been a long-standing concern. Therefore, the epigenetic diversity has been proposed as a new resource for future crop breeding, which will be hereinafter referred to as epibreeding. DISCUSSION: The induction of methylome changes has been performed in plants by several methods including chemical drugs treatment and tissue culture. Target-specific epigenetic engineering has been also attempted by exogenous RNAi mediated by virus-induced gene silencing and grafting. Importantly, the new and innovative techniques including the CRISPR-Cas9 system have recently been adopted in epigenetic engineering of plant genomes, facilitating the efforts for epibreeding. CONCLUSION: In this review, we introduce several examples of natural and induced epigenetic changes impacting on agronomic traits and discuss the methods for generating epigenomic diversity and site-specific epigenetic engineering.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Epigenómica
/
Fitomejoramiento
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Genes Genomics
Año:
2022
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
China
Pais de publicación:
Corea del Sur