Home > Browse Issues > Vol.29 No.4
DNA Methylation in Plants and Its Epigenetic Function
Xiao-Qiang Chen, Chun-Guo Wang, Xiu-Lan Li, Wen-Qin Song*, Rui-Yang Chen
College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
Abstract: Epigenetics is defined as gene-regulating activities with heritable characteristics that do not involve a change to the base sequences. It抯 responsible for the mechanisms of the temporal and spatial control of gene activity in plants through the study of DNA methylation， RNA interference， genomic imprinting， transcriptional gene silencing， etc. Thereinto， the best known and most thoroughly studied epigenetic phenomena is DNA methylation， which plays an important role in regulating gene expression during plant regeneration and development. In this review， the authors briefly introduced the characteristics of plant methylation， its regulating mechanisms， epigenetic functions and analysis techniques.
CN
EN