Water-deficiency conditions differently modulate the methylome of roots and leaves in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)

Abstract

One of the strategies of plant adaptation to stress is the modulation of gene expression, which may result from the regulation of DNA methylation. This study attempted to characterize and compare the barley methylome of leaves and roots under water-deficiency treatment and in the subsequent rewatering phase. Our results, obtained using methylation-sensitive amplification polymorphism sequencing analysis, indicated that the overall DNA methylation level in the barley genome was high and in general stable under water-deficiency conditions. Nevertheless, numerous differentially methylated sites (DMSs) were induced by stress in the leaves and roots. Equal proportions of novel stress-induced methylation and demethylation events were observed within the genes in the leaves, but new methylations dominated in the roots. Repetitive elements preferentially underwent demethylation in the leaves and novel methylations in the roots. Importantly, rewatering and plant recovery resulted in the reversibility of the majority of stress-induced methylation events, but this process was more efficient in the leaves than in the roots. Different biological processes were enriched within the subsets of the DMSs that were identified in the genic regions of leaves and roots. We assume that the organ specificity of the methylome changes in response to water deficiency might be an important regulatory mechanism that leads to multi-level mechanisms of stress tolerance in barley.