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DNA hypomethylation confers enhanced immunity against parasitic nematodes in rice

Boekbijdrage - Boekabstract Conferentiebijdrage

Epigenetics plays an important role in the plant response to adverse environmental conditions. A role for DNA hypomethylation has recently been suggested in the pathogenic interaction between bacteria and plants, yet it remains unclear whether this phenomenon reflects a conserved and general plant immunity response. We therefore investigated the role of DNA methylation in the interaction between rice and one of its most damaging pathogens, Meloidogyne graminicola (Mg). Global DNA methylation analysis of nematode induced gall tissue at 3 days post inoculation demonstrated general hypomethylation in galls. Treatment of uninfected roots by a pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP) revealed similar hypomethylation, suggesting causal impact on immunity. This was confirmed by a reduced plant susceptibility upon azacytidine treatment. Whole genome bisulfite sequencing of gall tissue 3 dpi revealed that hypomethylation was massively present in the CHH context, while absent for CpG or CHG nucleotide contexts. CHH hypomethylated regions were significantly enriched for gene promoter regions, leading to gene overexpression at 7 dpi, but not at 3 dpi. Finally, the relevance of CHH hypomethylation in plant defence was confirmed in mutants of the RNA-directed DNA methylation pathway (RdDM). We demonstrated that DNA hypomethylation confers enhanced defence in rice towards root-parasitic nematodes, and is likely to be part of the basal PAMP-triggered immunity response in plants.
Boek: MOLECULAR PLANT-MICROBE INTERACTIONS
Volume: 32
Pagina's: 143 - 143
Jaar van publicatie:2019