Epigenetics, Ecology and Evolution in Algae

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Genetics, Genomics and Biotechnology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 April 2025 | Viewed by 2233

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Biology, University of Nantes, CNRS, US2B, UMR 6286, F-44000 Nantes, France
Interests: epigenomics; omics; algae; bacteria; ecology; evolution; symbiosis; bioinformatics; biotechnologies
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Algal Development and Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen, Max-Planck-Ring 5, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
Interests: reproduction; algae; evolution; genomics; developmental genetics; life cycle

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Epigenetics (heritable changes, through mitotic or meiotic cell division, in gene expression without modifications of the underlying DNA sequence) has emerged as an important discipline bridging environment, phenotypic plasticity and evolution. Being dynamic and reversible, epigenetic-induced variations allow a greater phenotypic plasticity in response to a changing environment, and may therefore facilitate acclimation and ultimately adaptation upon its action on DNA sequence. Epigenetic mechanisms have been extensively investigated in plant and animal genomes, yielding insightful findings into genome regulation and impacts on cell homeostasis, development, diseases and even evolution, in particular from population epigenomics studies. Despite the growing interest in epigenetics and the development of sequencing technologies, knowledge on these processes remains scarce in species outside animals and plants, in particular microbial eukaryotes such as stramenopiles, rhizaria, alveolates and ciliates. Considering the position of these species in the tree of life, investigating their epigenome will help to understand the evolutionary origins of epigenomic components and mechanisms as well as their role in evolution and speciation.

This Special Issue welcomes original research, review, and methodology papers on the epigenetics of model and non-model organisms from protist lineages using multidisciplinary approaches and/or high-throughput technologies to investigate processes such as cell differentiation, sexual reproduction, development, stress response, acclimation and adaptation to the environment.

Dr. Leila Tirichine
Dr. Susana Coelho
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • epigenomics
  • chromatin
  • DNA methylation
  • non-coding RNAs
  • protists
  • environment
  • evolution
  • ecology
  • biological processes

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 2892 KiB  
Article
Chromosome-Wide Distribution and Characterization of H3K36me3 and H3K27Ac in the Marine Model Diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum
by Yue Wu and Leila Tirichine
Plants 2023, 12(15), 2852; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12152852 - 2 Aug 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1502
Abstract
Histone methylation and acetylation play a crucial role in response to developmental cues and environmental changes. Previously, we employed mass spectrometry to identify histone modifications such as H3K27ac and H3K36me3 in the model diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum, which have been shown to be [...] Read more.
Histone methylation and acetylation play a crucial role in response to developmental cues and environmental changes. Previously, we employed mass spectrometry to identify histone modifications such as H3K27ac and H3K36me3 in the model diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum, which have been shown to be important for transcriptional activation in animal and plant species. To further investigate their evolutionary implications, we utilized chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by deep sequencing (ChIP-Seq) and explored their genome-wide distribution in P. tricornutum. Our study aimed to determine their role in transcriptional regulation of genes and transposable elements (TEs) and their co-occurrence with other histone marks. Our results revealed that H3K27ac and H3K36me3 were predominantly localized in promoters and genic regions indicating a high conservation pattern with studies of the same marks in plants and animals. Furthermore, we report the diversity of genes encoding H3 lysine 36 (H3K36) trimethylation–specific methyltransferase in microalgae leveraging diverse sequencing resources including the Marine Microbial Eukaryote Transcriptome Sequencing Project database (MMETSP). Our study expands the repertoire of epigenetic marks in a model microalga and provides valuable insights into the evolutionary context of epigenetic-mediated gene regulation. These findings shed light on the intricate interplay between histone modifications and gene expression in microalgae, contributing to our understanding of the broader epigenetic landscape in eukaryotic organisms. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Epigenetics, Ecology and Evolution in Algae)
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