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Gene activation and cell fate control in plants: a chromatin perspective

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Abstract

In plants, environment-adaptable organogenesis extends throughout the lifespan, and iterative development requires repetitive rounds of activation and repression of several sets of genes. Eukaryotic genome compaction into chromatin forms a physical barrier for transcription; therefore, induction of gene expression requires alteration in chromatin structure. One of the present great challenges in molecular and developmental biology is to understand how chromatin is brought from a repressive to permissive state on specific loci and in a very specific cluster of cells, as well as how this state is further maintained and propagated through time and cell division in a cell lineage. In this review, we report recent discoveries implementing our knowledge on chromatin dynamics that modulate developmental gene expression. We also discuss how new data sets highlight plant specificities, likely reflecting requirement for a highly dynamic chromatin.

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Acknowledgments

Work in our group is supported by a Marie-Curie Intra-European Fellowship (FP7 ChromAct to J.E.), the French National Agency Young Researcher Grant (ChromFlow ANR JCJC project to C.C.C.), the University Grenoble-Alpes (UGA-UJF) and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS-Higher Education Chair to C.C.C.). The authors thank Leor Eshed Williams, François Parcy and two anonymous reviewers for critical comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Grenoble Alpes, UMR5168, 38041, Grenoble, France

    Julia Engelhorn, Robert Blanvillain & Cristel C. Carles

  2. CNRS, UMR5168, 38054, Grenoble, France

    Julia Engelhorn, Robert Blanvillain & Cristel C. Carles

  3. CEA, iRTSV, Laboratoire Physiologie Cellulaire et Végétale, 38054, Grenoble, France

    Julia Engelhorn, Robert Blanvillain & Cristel C. Carles

  4. INRA, 38054, Grenoble, France

    Julia Engelhorn, Robert Blanvillain & Cristel C. Carles

  5. Laboratoire Physiologie Cellulaire Végétale, UMR CNRS 5168 - CEA - INRA1200 - UJF CEA, 17 rue des Martyrs, bât. C2 - Bureau 227B, 38054, Grenoble Cedex 9, France

    Cristel C. Carles

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  1. Julia Engelhorn
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  2. Robert Blanvillain
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Correspondence to Cristel C. Carles.

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Engelhorn, J., Blanvillain, R. & Carles, C.C. Gene activation and cell fate control in plants: a chromatin perspective. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 71, 3119–3137 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-014-1609-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-014-1609-0

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