Dr. Manu Dubin
November 12,
2018 11.00 – 12.30 Room 403, TPOC-3
SEMINAR ABSTRACT: Rising temperatures and CO2 levels along with altered precipitation patterns threaten both natural biodiversity and agriculture. Therefore, it is of critical importance to understand how plants will respond to these environmental changes and to develop crop varieties that are more resistant to extreme and unpredictable climates. In addition to genetic variation, epigenome modulation is thought to provide a mechanism for organisms to adapt, within and between generations. To investigate this potential mechanism Dr Dubin profiled variation of DNA methylation in populations of A. thaliana and found that accessions originating from colder climates show elevated CpG gene body methylation (gbM). This variation in methylation levels appears to be under strong selection and was mapped using GWAS and F2 populations to loci encoding histones or proteins involved in chromatin remodeling. At least some of these variants seem to be associated with altered temperature dependent gene expression patterns.