Plant epigenetics
= Plant epigenetics
<Plant epigenetics> investigates changes in <gene> activity associated with regulatory states such as <DNA methylation> and <chromatin> organization, including states that persist through <mitosis> or <reproduction>. Stable expression differences need not be caused by a changed <DNA> sequence, but independence from sequence variation must be tested.
The <Karma epiallele> connects this distinction to agriculture: reduced methylation of an intronic <retrotransposon> was associated with altered splicing and the low-yield mantled form of tissue-cultured oil palm. <Somaclonal variation> can thus involve a regulatory change as well as a sequence <mutation>.<Loss of Karma transposon methylation underlies the mantled somaclonal variant of oil palm by Meilina Ong-Abdullah and others>[Abstract and molecular association with mantling]{ref}
Persistence is a measurable property. Comparisons of <Arabidopsis thaliana> lines descended from a common ancestor found many changes at individual methylated positions but greater stability across larger methylated regions. Calling every transient response an <epimutation> would obscure this difference.<Spontaneous epigenetic variation in the Arabidopsis thaliana methylome by Claude Becker and others>[Abstract: ten lines separated for thirty generations]{ref}