Understanding roles of epigenetics in reproductive strategies of clonal plants

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26840148
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Ecology/Environment
• Research Institution: Ritsumeikan University
• Principal Investigator: Araki Kiwako 立命館大学, 生命科学部, 任期制講師 (30580930)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: クローナル植物 / エピジェネティック変異 / 野生植物 / DNAメチル化 / 生育環境 / 環境応答 / クローン繁殖

Outline of Final Research Achievements

To reveal epigenetic roles in plants reproduced by clonal reproduction without genetic changes, clonal individuals of three clonal species were cultivated in different conditions to investigate their phenotypic and DNA methylation changes. As a result, such phenotypes as flowering number, leaf number and leaf shapes varied between clonal ramets of different treatments, which was however not inherited. In the result of bisulfite sequencing, methylation differences between ramets with different treatments were 2% on average (maximum 40%), which indicated that few changes of DNA methylation status might be caused between clonal individuals during the generation. Therefore, it is suggested that clonal offspring respond to the environment they experience, but DNA methylations of them are stable for the experimental periods.

Free Research Field

植物生態学