Predicting heterosis in F1 hybrids from parental DNA methylomes (A13)

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Despite the importance and wide exploitation of heterosis in commercial crop breeding, the molecular mechanisms behind this phenomenon are not well understood. There is growing evidence that, beside genetic, also epigenetic factors contribute to heterosis. In this project, we perform high-throughput phenotypic and epigenomic analyses of a large panel of Arabidopsis thaliana epiHybrids, which were derived from isogenic but epigenetically divergent parents. Our aim is to test whether parental DNA methylation states determine hybrid performance as well as the functional remodelling of hybrid genomes, independently of DNA sequence variation.