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Immuno-cytogenetic manifestation of epigenetic chromatin modification marks in plants

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Abstract

Histone proteins and the nucleosomes along with DNA are the essential components of eukaryotic chromatin. Post-translational histone–DNA interactions and modifications eventually offer significant alteration in the chromatin environment and potentially influence diverse fundamental biological processes, some of which are known to be epigenetically inherited and constitute the “epigenetic code”. Such chromatin modifications evidently uncover remarkable diversity and biological specificity associated with distinct patterns of covalent histone marks. The past few years have witnessed major breakthroughs in plant biology research by utilizing chromatin modification-specific antibodies through molecular cytogenetic tools to ascertain hallmark signatures of chromatin domains on the chromosomes. Here, we survey current information on chromosomal distribution patterns of chromatin modifications with special emphasis on histone methylation, acetylation, phosphorylation, and centromere-specific histone 3 (CENH3) marks in plants using immuno-FISH as a basic tool. Major available information has been classified under typical and comparative cytogenetic detection of chromatin modifications in plants. Further, spatial distribution of chromatin environment that exists between different cell types such as angiosperm/gymnosperm, monocot/dicot, diploid/polyploids, vegetative/generative cells, as well as different stages, i.e., mitosis versus meiosis has also been discussed in detail. Several challenges and future perspectives of molecular cytogenetics in the grooming field of plant chromatin dynamics have also been addressed.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Japan for providing postdoctoral fellowship and research grant (SKS, no. P13399/2013). Sincere thanks are also due to Dr. Go Suzuki and all members of Plant Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Osaka Kyoiku University, Osaka, Japan for their constant encouragement and help. We apologize to those authors whose works we could not cite because of space limitations.

Conflict of Interest

Authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Natural Sciences, Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, Osaka Kyoiku University, 4-698-1 Asahigaoka, Kashiwara, Osaka 582-8582, Japan

    Santosh Kumar Sharma & Yasuhiko Mukai

  2. Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Kansai University of Welfare Sciences, Kashiwara, Osaka 582-0026, Japan

    Maki Yamamoto

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  1. Santosh Kumar Sharma
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  2. Maki Yamamoto
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Correspondence to Santosh Kumar Sharma.

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Sharma, S.K., Yamamoto, M. & Mukai, Y. Immuno-cytogenetic manifestation of epigenetic chromatin modification marks in plants. Planta 241, 291–301 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-014-2233-9

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