Investigation of methylome, transcriptome and phenotypic changes induced by temperature during asexual and sexual reproduction in the woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca)

Abstract

Environmental change is a major challenge to plants. Yupeng Zhang investigated the epigenetic memory of elevated temperature in different ecotypes of Woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca) and the potential machinery that establishes this memory. It was determined how the F. vesca transcriptome and methylome adjust to elevated temperature when plants were exposed to different temperatures only during their reproduction period. The elevated temperature induced changes in flowering time, stolon number, and petiole length in one or more ecotypes, indicating an epigenetic memory in F. vesca. Overall, DNA was hypermethylated following asexual reproduction but hypomethylated following sexual reproduction. The transcriptomes during sexual and asexual reproduction was also analysed. A small number of differentially expressed genes were shared between sexually and asexually reproduced individuals. Most genes related to the epigenetic machinery were upregulated in the asexual progeny propagated at elevated temperature, while these genes were downregulated in the sexual progeny. Up to 20% of the differentially methylated genes showed significant gene expression changes in the asexual experiment, whereas this ratio dropped to less than 1% in the sexual experiment. Taken together, the findings show that an epigenetic memory to elevated temperature can be established in F. vesca following both asexual and sexual reproduction.