The many faces of plant chromatin: Meeting summary of the 4th European workshop on plant chromatin 2015, Uppsala, Sweden

Abstract

In June 2015, the fourth European Workshop on Plant Chromatin took place in Uppsala, Sweden, bringing together 80 researchers studying various aspects of plant chromatin and epigenetics. The intricate relationships between plant chromatin dynamics and gene expression change, chromatin organization within the plant cell nucleus, and the impact of chromatin structure on plant development were discussed. Among the main highlights of the meeting were an ever-growing list of newly identified players in chromatin structure establishment and the development of novel tools and approaches to foster our understanding of chromatin-mediated gene regulation, taking into account the context of the plant cell nucleus and its architecture. In this report, we summarize some of the main advances and prospects of plant chromatin research presented at this meeting.

Keywords: chromatin; development; epigenetics; histone modification; histone variant; nucleus; plant.

Figure 1.

Possible scenario for the role of TRBs at PcG target genes. In the default state (A), PcG-mediated chromatin compaction prohibits access to transcription factor binding sites. In case of compromised repression (B), TRBs can access and bind their cognate sites thereby interfering with the binding of other factors acting as transcriptional activators (C). (Courtesy of Franziska Turck, Cologne, Germany).

Figure 2.

Hypothetical model depicting the eviction of H2A.Z from nucleosomes and transcriptional activation of target genes after ambient temperature increase. HSF - Heat-shock factor. (Courtesy of Sandra Cortijo and Philip Wigge, Cambridge, UK).

Figure 3.

Schematic representation of nucleoli purification using fluorescence-activated nucleolar sorting (FANoS). Lower part: Examples of DAPI-stained nucleoli marked by the nucleolar protein FIBRILLARIN 2 fused to YFP (FIB2-YFP). (Courtesy of Frédéric Pontvianne, Perpignan, France).

Figure 4.

CHH methylation pattern during megaspore mother cell (MMC) development visualised by DYNAMET. (Courtesy of Mathieu Ingouff, Montpellier, France).