1. Plant Biology

Dormancy-specific imprinting underlies maternal inheritance of seed dormancy in Arabidopsis thaliana

  1. Urszula Piskurewicz
  2. Mayumi Iwasaki
  3. Daichi Susaki
  4. Christian Megies
  5. Tetsu Kinoshita
  6. Luis Lopez-Molina  Is a corresponding author
  1. University of Geneva, Switzerland
  2. Yokohama City University, Japan
  3. Yokohama City University, Switzerland
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.19573
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  1. Urszula Piskurewicz
  2. Mayumi Iwasaki
  3. Daichi Susaki
  4. Christian Megies
  5. Tetsu Kinoshita
  6. Luis Lopez-Molina
(2016)
Dormancy-specific imprinting underlies maternal inheritance of seed dormancy in Arabidopsis thaliana
eLife 5:e19573.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.19573
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Abstract

Mature seed dormancy is a vital plant trait preventing germination out of season. In Arabidopsis, the trait can be maternally regulated but the underlying mechanisms sustaining this regulation, its general occurrence and biological significance among accessions is poorly understood. Upon seed imbibition, the endosperm is essential to repress germination of dormant seeds. Investigation of genomic imprinting in the mature seed endosperm led us to identify a novel set of imprinted genes expressed upon seed imbibition. Remarkably, programs of imprinted gene expression are adapted according to the dormancy status of the seed. We provide direct evidence that imprinted genes play a role to regulate germination processes and that preferential maternal allelic expression can implement maternal inheritance of seed dormancy levels.

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Author details

  1. Urszula Piskurewicz

    Department of Plant Biology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  2. Mayumi Iwasaki

    Department of Plant Biology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  3. Daichi Susaki

    Kihara Institute for Biological Research, Yokohama City University, Yokohama, Japan
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  4. Christian Megies

    Department of Plant Biology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  5. Tetsu Kinoshita

    Kihara Institute for Biological Research, Yokohama City University, Yokohama, Switzerland
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  6. Luis Lopez-Molina

    Department of Plant Biology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
    For correspondence
    Luis.LopezMolina@unige.ch
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-9523-9123

Funding

Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung

  • Urszula Piskurewicz
  • Mayumi Iwasaki
  • Christian Megies
  • Luis Lopez-Molina

Grant in Aid for Scientific Research on innovative area (16H06465,16H06464,and 16K21727)

  • Daichi Susaki
  • Tetsu Kinoshita

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

© 2016, Piskurewicz et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Urszula Piskurewicz
  2. Mayumi Iwasaki
  3. Daichi Susaki
  4. Christian Megies
  5. Tetsu Kinoshita
  6. Luis Lopez-Molina
(2016)
Dormancy-specific imprinting underlies maternal inheritance of seed dormancy in Arabidopsis thaliana
eLife 5:e19573.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.19573

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.19573

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Further reading

    1. Plant Biology

    Non-canonical RNA-directed DNA methylation participates in maternal and environmental control of seed dormancy

    Mayumi Iwasaki, Lena Hyvärinen ... Luis Lopez-Molina
    Research Advance

    Seed dormancy is an adaptive trait preventing premature germination out of season. In a previous report (Piskurewicz et al., 2016) we showed that dormancy levels are maternally inherited through the preferential maternal allele expression in the seed endosperm of ALLANTOINASE (ALN), a negative regulator of dormancy. Here we show that suppression of ALN paternal allele expression is imposed by non-canonical RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) of the paternal ALN allele promoter. Dormancy levels are further enhanced by cold during seed development. We show that DNA methylation of the ALN promoter is stimulated by cold in a tissue-specific manner through non-canonical RdDM, involving RDR6 and AGO6. This leads to suppression of ALN expression and further promotion of seed dormancy. Our results suggest that tissue-specific and cold-induced RdDM is superimposed to parental allele imprints to deposit in the seed progeny a transient memory of environmental conditions experienced by the mother plant.