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Poster

Session: Session 2 Presenting Authors at Posters (Odds)

P-037 - Exploring and Exploiting Epigenetic Plant Immunity

Wednesday, July 16, 2025
13:30 - 15:15  
Location: Confex Hall 3
Crop resistance genetics and genomics

    Presenting Author(s)

  • LT

    Louis Tirot

    University of Sheffield
    SHEFFIELD, UNITED KINGDOM

    • Author(s)

  • PZ

    Peijun Zhang

    University of Sheffield
    SHEFFIELD, England, United Kingdom

  • AP

    Adam Parker

    University of Sheffield
    SHEFFIELD, England, United Kingdom

  • MB

    Mark Brailey

    University of Sheffield
    SHEFFIELD, England, United Kingdom

  • JT

    Jurriaan Ton

    University of Sheffield
    SHEFFIELD, England, United Kingdom

In plants, DNA methylation is an important mechanism to adjust genomic expression in response to stressful environments. Its prevalent role in the regulation of stress responsive genes and the establishment of a priming state for long-term stress adaptation make it an attractive candidate for improving plant fitness. However, due to its role in maintaining transposable element silencing, using DNA methylation as vector for plant improvement needs to be done in a controlled manner. Therefore, we generated an estradiol-inducible construct expressing ROS1, a DNA demethylase, to induce adjustable levels of DNA demethylation in Arabidopsis thaliana. We cultivated transformed lines in a hydroponic system to rapidly generate plant lines with altered DNA methylation level, compare the fitness of the new lines against (a)biotic stresses and investigate the molecular changes that underpin the differences in these plant stress responses. We show that, based on the frequency of ROS1 induction, we can consistently generate plant lines with stress-specific induced resistance, including against the biotrophic pathogen Pseudomonas syringae. We also show that ROS1 induction frequency strongly affects the proteins that bind together with ROS1 when pulled by IP-MS. Notably, inducing ROS1 multiple times in a row strongly enriched co-IP proteins in histone linker H1 and was associated with an altered phosphorylation status of ROS1, possibly explaining these treatment-specific ROS1 interactions.