The relationship between genome, epigenome, and performance in long-live plants

不动的有机体不能简单地逃避不利的、有压力的条件。然而，它们可以在不同的环境条件下表现出显着的灵活性，以确保生长和生存。特别是像树木这样长寿的植物，表现出惊人的灵活性。除了遗传成分外，表观遗传机制在促成这种“表型可塑性”方面发挥关键作用。表观遗传学，字面意思是“高于遗传学”，是指研究基因功能的变化，这些变化可以在响应内部或外部信号时诱导，可以在细胞分裂中遗传，但不是由生物体DNA的变化引起的。因此，表观遗传标记可以在分子水平上提供额外的可塑性。我的研究目标是调查表观基因组的重塑如何与长寿植物的压力“记忆”和生命周期特征相关。在接下来的五年里，我的实验室将致力于以下三个相互关联的研究目标，以白杨作为树种的模型。

Immobile organisms cannot simply evade unfavorable, stressful, conditions. They can, however, show a remarkable flexibility under varying environmental conditions that ensures growth and survival. Especially long-lived plants like trees exhibit such an astonishing flexibility. In addition to a genetic component, epigenetic mechanisms play key roles in contributing to this “phenotypic plasticity”. Epigenetics, literally “above genetics”, refers to the study of changes in gene function that can be induced in response internal or external signals, that can be heritable across cell division but that do not result from changes in an organism’s DNA. Thus, epigenetic marks can provide an additional layer of plasticity at the molecular level. The goal of my research is to investigate how remodeling of the epigenome relates to stress “memory” and life cycle characteristics in long-lived plants. In the next five years, my lab will address the following three interconnected research objectives, using the poplar as model for tree species.