Abstract
DNA methylation plays a crucial role in the regulation of gene expression, activity of transposable elements, defense against foreign DNA, and inheritance of specific gene expression patterns. The link between stress exposure and sequence-specific changes in DNA methylation was hypothetical until it was shown that stresses can induce changes in the gene expression through hypomethylation or hypermethylation of DNA. To detect changes in DNA methylation under herbicide stress in two local Zea mays inbred lines exhibiting differential susceptibility to Roundup®, the methylation-sensitive amplified polymorphism (MSAP) technique was used. The overall DNA methylation levels were determined at approximately 60% for both tested lines. The most significant changes were observed for the more sensitive Z. mays line, where 6 h after the herbicide application, a large increase in the level of DNA methylation (attributed to the increase in fully methylated bands (18.65%)) was noted. DNA sequencing revealed that changes in DNA methylation profiles occurred in genes encoding heat shock proteins, membrane proteins, transporters, kinases, lipases, methyltransferases, zinc-finger proteins, cytochromes, and transposons. Herbicide stress-induced changes depended on the Z. mays variety, and the large increase in DNA methylation level in the sensitive line resulted in a lower ability to cope with stress conditions.
Highlights
Herbicides are chemicals used to decrease weed population in crop fields, to protect crops and increase their yield, and to enhance harvest and processing efficiency of the agro-food industry
Herbicide stress-induced changes depended on the Z. mays variety, and the large increase in DNA methylation level in the sensitive line resulted in a lower ability to cope with stress conditions
Differential bands attributed to the changes in DNA methylation between samples derived from TL or SL under herbicide stress are markedly noticeable
Summary
Herbicides are chemicals used to decrease weed population in crop fields, to protect crops and increase their yield, and to enhance harvest and processing efficiency of the agro-food industry. Glyphosate (N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine) is an active compound of Roundup® (a highly effective, broad-spectrum, non-selective herbicide) and many other commercially available herbicides, that targets 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3phosphate synthase (EPSPS), an enzyme in the shikimate pathway that mediates the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids in plants, bacteria, and fungi (Kanissery et al 2019; Mertens et al 2018). EPSPS of all higher plants appears to be inhibited by glyphosate, making it a non-selective herbicide that is active on a very wide range of plant species. It remains unclear how glyphosate-induced inhibition of the shikimate pathway kills plants (Gomes et al 2014). Some differences in the effects of glyphosate between plant species and biotypes are consistent with the
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