Abstract
Crop breeding faces the challenge of increasing food demand, especially under climatic changes. Conventional breeding has relied on genetic diversity by combining alleles to obtain desired traits. In recent years, research on epigenetics and epitranscriptomics has shown that epigenetic and epitranscriptomic diversity provides additional sources for crop breeding and harnessing epigenetic and epitranscriptomic regulation through biotechnologies has great potential for crop improvement. Here, we review epigenome and epitranscriptome variations during plant development and in response to environmental stress as well as the available sources for epiallele formation. We also discuss the possible strategies for applying epialleles and epitranscriptome engineering in crop breeding.
Highlights
Since the birth of agriculture, human beings have never stopped domesticating plants
YTH domain-containing proteins were identified as reader proteins that bind to m6A-modified mRNA in vivo and affect mRNA stability in Arabidopsis [43]
RNA (C5-cytosine) methyltransferase (RCMT) family proteins have been identified as m5C mRNA methyltransferases in Arabidopsis
Summary
Since the birth of agriculture, human beings have never stopped domesticating plants. Using the CRISPR-Cas system, multiple endogenous genes that function in plant architecture, plant immunity, nitrogen use, and other pathways have been manipulated to improve crops directly. Six agronomically important traits were rapidly improved by editing O. alta homologs of the genes controlling these traits in diploid rice [14]. Such strategies described above will greatly accelerate the breeding process and strengthen world food security. Knowledge on epigenetic and epitranscriptomic control for plant development and biotic and abiotic resistance is accumulating, and epigenetic and epitranscriptomic editing for crop breeding is emerging [16,17,18,19]. We summarize recent progress on understanding the contribution of epigenomic and epitranscriptomic variations to plant traits and discuss the potential applications for crop breeding
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