In the last years epigenetics has gained massive momentum in all research areas of biology. Epigenetics is of special interest because it can explain how memories of experiences made by an organism can be transferred from one generation to another, independently of the DNA sequence. Indeed recent research has demonstrated that the lifestyle and the environment of an organism not only affects its gene expression, but that gene expression states can also be transmitted from one generation to another. This epigenetic “memory” is primarily maintained by DNA methylation but also by certain types of histone modifications.

Plants have proven to be ideal models in this field of research. In plants it has been observed that there is considerable natural epigenetic variation between individuals of the same species. This variability can have an important impact on different traits of plants. Furthermore it has been shown that such epigenetic variants can be stable over centuries, and yet they remain reversible. It is now becoming generally recognized that heritable epigenetic variation could make a very important contribution to quantitative trait variation in plants and therefore represents valuable information that should be harnessed in crop improvement. It is likely that this contribution might be particularly significant for vegetatively propagated plants, especially regarding their adaptation to the environment.

Our presentation will be split in two parts. First we will present a system we have set-up in order to discover novel epigenetic regulators and mechanisms in Arabidopsis. In the second part we will discuss recent results we have obtained in apple and provide an outlook about our future plans to implement epigenetics in crop breeding.

Contact :

Etienne Bucher, Jean-Marc Celton (IRHS)