Crop Epigenomics: Identifying, Unlocking, and Harnessing Cryptic Variation in Crop Genomes

DNA methylation is a key chromatin modification in plant genomes that is meiotically and mitotically heritable, and at times is associated with gene expression and morphological variation. Benefiting from the increased availability of high-quality reference genome assemblies and methods to profile single-base resolution DNA methylation states, DNA methylomes for many crop species are available. These efforts are making it possible to begin answering crucial questions, including understanding the role of DNA methylation in developmental processes, its role in crop species evolution, and whether DNA methylation is dynamically altered and heritable in response to changes in the environment. These genome-wide maps provide evidence for the existence of silent epialleles in plant genomes which, once identified, can be targeted for reactivation leading to phenotypic variation.