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

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.

Article and author information

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, Japan
    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.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Daniel Zilberman, University of California, Berkeley, United States

Version history

  1. Received: July 12, 2016
  2. Accepted: December 21, 2016
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: December 22, 2016 (version 1)
  4. Accepted Manuscript updated: December 28, 2016 (version 2)
  5. Version of Record published: January 18, 2017 (version 3)
  6. Version of Record updated: August 17, 2017 (version 4)

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

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