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Epigenetic Regulation in Castor Bean Seeds

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The Castor Bean Genome

Part of the book series: Compendium of Plant Genomes ((CPG))

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Abstract

Endosperm genome hypomethylation is an evolutionarily conserved feature in flowering plants and plays important roles in the development of seeds by the control of gene expression and genomic imprinting. However, it is difficult to dissect the regulatory mechanisms of DNA methylation and genomic imprinting in most dicots, in which endosperm is ephemeral and disappears with seed development. Castor bean (Ricinus communis), unlike Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), provides an excellent model for studying seed biology in dicotyledons due to its endosperm that is relatively large and persistent throughout the seed development. In this chapter, we dissect the potential regulatory mechanism of DNA methylation in castor bean seeds, emphasizing the processes of endosperm hypomethylation and CHH hypermethylation. We then identify and characterize the imprinted genes in castor bean endosperm. Their potential biological roles and epigenetic regulation were further analyzed and discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economic Plants and Biotechnology, and Yunnan Key Laboratory for Wild Plant Resource, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 132 Lanhei Road, Kunming, 650204, China

    Wei Xu & Aizhong Liu

  2. College of Forestry, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming, 650224, China

    Aizhong Liu

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  1. Wei Xu
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  2. Aizhong Liu
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Correspondence to Aizhong Liu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Raja Ramanna Fellow, Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India, ICAR-National Research Center on Plant Biotechnology, New Delhi, India

    Chittaranjan Kole

  2. Rockville, MD, USA

    Pablo Rabinowicz

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Xu, W., Liu, A. (2018). Epigenetic Regulation in Castor Bean Seeds. In: Kole, C., Rabinowicz, P. (eds) The Castor Bean Genome. Compendium of Plant Genomes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97280-0_10

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