A VEL3 histone deacetylase complex establishes a maternal epigenetic state controlling progeny seed dormancy

Abstract

Mother plants play an important role in the control of dormancy and dispersal characters of their progeny. In Arabidopsis seed dormancy is imposed by the embryo-surrounding tissues of the endosperm and seed coat. Here we show that VERNALIZATION5/VIN3-LIKE 3 (VEL3) maintains maternal control over progeny seed dormancy by establishing an epigenetic state in the central cell that primes the depth of primary seed dormancy later established during seed maturation. VEL3 colocalises with MSI1 in the nucleolus and associates with a histone deacetylase complex. Furthermore, VEL3 preferentially associates with pericentromeric chromatin and is required for deacetylation and H3K27me3 deposition established in the central cell. The epigenetic state established by maternal VEL3 is retained in mature seeds, and controls seed dormancy in part through repression of programmed cell death-associated gene ORE1. Our data demonstrates a mechanism by which maternal control of progeny seed physiology persists post-shedding, maintaining parental control of seed behaviour.

Cryptic divergences and repeated hybridizations within the endangered “living fossil” dove tree (Davidia involucrata) revealed by whole genome resequencing

“…Another gene, MEE70 (Dinv19349), encodes a WD-40 repeat-containing protein that participates in chromatin assembly as part of the CAF1 and FIE complex. Mutants of MEE70 exhibit parthenogenetic development, including the proliferation of unfertilized endosperm and embryos ( Chen et al., 2023 ). PGM2 (Dinv28052) encodes a cytosolic phosphoglucomutase (PGM), and the loss of both PGM2 and PGM3 significantly impairs male and female gametophyte development ( Malinova et al., 2014 ).…”

The interactome of histone deacetylase HDA19 in dark-grown Arabidopsis seedlings

“…The mass spectrometer was operated in full scan mode ( m / z 350-1,600) in the Orbitrap analyser at a resolution of 70,000. The data dependent MS/MS acquisitions were performed with a 2 m / z isolation window, 27% NCE (normalized collision energy), and 17,500 resolving power as described previously (Chen et al, 2023).…”

“…HISTONE DEACETYLASE 19 (HDA19) belongs to the class 1 of the Reduced Potassium Dependence3/Histone Deacetylase-1 (RPD3/HDA1) superfamily and is possibly the most intensively studied HDA. HDA19 has reported roles across a broad landscape of processes and was shown to be a crucial player in seed development (Long et al, 2006; Zhou et al, 2020; Chen et al, 2023), pathogen response (Zhou et al, 2005), phosphate deficiency (Chen et al, 2015), light signalling (Jing et al, 2020), the regulation of flowering time (Ning et al, 2019), hormone responses (Kim, 2019; Mehdi et al 2016), and floral organ identity genes (Krogan et al, 2012; Bollier et al, 2018; Ning et al, 2019). Similar to other RPD3-type HDACs, HDA19 forms various complexes that play pivotal roles in various stress responses (Feng et al, 2021; Vélez-Bermúdez and Schmidt, 2021), some of which possess yet unexplored stress-specific compositions.…”

Current status of community resources and priorities for weed genomics research

“…As weedy genomes become available, collection, maintenance, and resequencing of globally distributed accessions of these species will help to replicate the success found in ecological studies of A. thaliana [ 29 – 35 ]. Evaluation of these accessions for traits of interest to produce large phenomics data sets (as in [ 36 – 40 ]) enables genome-wide association studies and population genomics analyses aimed at dissecting the genetic basis of variation in such traits [ 41 ]. Increasingly, these resources (e.g.…”