Epigenetic regulation of heat and cold stress responses in crop plants

Abstract

Environmental insults are inevitable companions of plants during their life-cycle, which significantly impact growth and development and also pose serious yield penalties. In the era of frequently changing climatic conditions, heat and cold stress impose severe threats to the plants. To deal with such situations, plants have evolved genetic and epigenetically regulated mechanisms including DNA methylation and histone modifications along with upregulation of stress-responsive genes. The networks of such genes have also been kept at pace by chromatin regulators under stressed environments. Furthermore, genetic and biochemical understanding of plant responses to heat, and cold stress have revealed the importance and involvement of chromatin regulators, and histone modifications in plant stress memory. The present review focuses on epigenetic alterations such as DNA methylation, histone, and chromatin modifications in response to heat and cold stress in plants.