Histone tales: lysine methylation, a protagonist in Arabidopsis development

Kai Cheng; Yingchao Xu; Chao Yang; Luc Ouellette; Longjian Niu; Xiaochen Zhou; Liutian Chu; Feng Zhuang; Jin Liu; Hualing Wu; Jean-Benoit Charron; Ming Luo

doi:10.1093/jxb/erz435

Histone tales: lysine methylation, a protagonist in Arabidopsis development

J Exp Bot. 2020 Jan 23;71(3):793-807. doi: 10.1093/jxb/erz435.

Authors

Kai Cheng^{1

2}, Yingchao Xu^{1

3}, Chao Yang⁴, Luc Ouellette⁵, Longjian Niu⁶, Xiaochen Zhou^{1

3}, Liutian Chu^{1

3}, Feng Zhuang^{1

3}, Jin Liu⁷, Hualing Wu⁸, Jean-Benoit Charron¹, Ming Luo¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of South China Agricultural Plant Molecular Analysis and Genetic Improvement, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Center of Economic Botany, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
² Key Laboratory of Plant Stress Biology, State Key Laboratory of Cotton Biology, School of Life Sciences, Henan University, Kaifeng, China.
³ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁴ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Biotechnology for Plant Development, School of Life Sciences, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.
⁵ Department of Plant Science, McGill University, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC, Canada.
⁶ Department of Biology, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China.
⁷ Institute for Food and Bioresource Engineering, Department of Energy and Resources Engineering and BIC-ESAT, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China.
⁸ Tea Research Institute, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences; Guangdong Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Resources Innovation & Utilization, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.

PMID: 31560751
DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erz435

Abstract

Histone methylation plays a fundamental role in the epigenetic regulation of gene expression driven by developmental and environmental cues in plants, including Arabidopsis. Histone methyltransferases and demethylases act as 'writers' and 'erasers' of methylation at lysine and/or arginine residues of core histones, respectively. A third group of proteins, the 'readers', recognize and interpret the methylation marks. Emerging evidence confirms the crucial roles of histone methylation in multiple biological processes throughout the plant life cycle. In this review, we summarize the regulatory mechanisms of lysine methylation, especially at histone H3 tails, and focus on the recent advances regarding the roles of lysine methylation in Arabidopsis development, from seed performance to reproductive development, and in callus formation.

Keywords: Histone demethylase; histone methyltransferase; lysine methylation; plant development; transcriptional regulation.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Arabidopsis / growth & development*
Arabidopsis / metabolism
Flowers / growth & development
Histone Methyltransferases / metabolism*
Histones / metabolism*
Methylation

Substances

Histones
Histone Methyltransferases