EpiFlowScen started on 16.02.2023 as a two year project funded by the “Petar Beron i NIE” program of the Bulgarian National Science Fund (BNSF).
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The climate on our planet is always changing, oscillating between greenhouse and ice age Earth. The last glacial maximum occurred about 20 000 years ago and even though the Earth has been slowly warming, we are currently within an interglacial period. Since the industrial revolution however, large quantities of pollutants have been emitted to the atmosphere and the water bodies of our planet, leading to a significant impact on its climate. The net effect of this pollution is the rapid increase of the average global temperature and of the frequency of sporadic weather events, such as heat and drought waves. Another major impact of human activity is the discovery of the Haber-Bosch process, which allows for the application of large quantities of nitrogen fertilizer to our fields, but also leads to pollution of water bodies and increased emission of greenhouse gases. All these phenomena have a significant impact on agriculture, putting in risk the sustainability of the yield, and thus jeopardizing food security across the globe. The EpiFlowScen project aims to investigate the way plants utilize certain epigenetic mechanisms in order to adapt to these changing environmental conditions in the face of drought, extreme temperatures and nitrogen availability.
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Cytosine methylation, defined by a modification of the fifth carbon of the cytosine base, is such an epigenetic mechanism. Increased levels of methylation of the gene body, or regulatory elements can cause altered gene expression. Also, the methylation landscape is fully heritable during mitotic cell division and partially so during meiosis. This means that acquired changes during the life cycle of a plant can be transmitted to the next generation as long term adaptations, but are nevertheless less stable than actual mutations. Cytosine methylation has also been recognized to impact flowering time via the FLOWERING LOCUS WAGENINGEN (FWA) and FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) genes. The EpiFlowScen project research plan includes assessing the potential impact of cytosine methylation dynamics on flowering time as a result of drought, cold temperature, or changing nitrogen availability with the aim to pave the way for future research on long term adaptation via acquired methylation changes, and their potential impact on flowering time.
A selected number of methylation mutants of A. thaliana will be screened against drought, cold and varying nitrogen conditions, for changes in flowering time. A hypermethylated and a hypomethylated mutant will be selected for further analysis on plant physiology and epigenetics. Bisulfite sequencing will be used to study methylation dynamics as a result of changing environmental conditions, while RNAseq will be used to correlate with gene expression. So far, the ddc (drm1/2, cmt3) hypomethylated mutant has shown decreased sensitivity to stress in terms of changes in flowering time compared to Col-0 wild type and will be used for further analysis. Upon completion this project will shed light on the interplay between cytosine methylation, abiotic stress and flowering time in A. thaliana.
Dr. Emil Vatov, the awardee of this “Petar Beron i NIE” fellowship is an enthusiastic researcher with background in molecular plant physiology. He earned his BSc in Genetics and Biochemistry from the Aberystwyth University in Wales, where he studied the stem rooting abilities of the perennial grass Miscanthus as a bachelor thesis. After that, he moved to Germany, where he earned an MSc degree in Crop Science with focus on molecular plant nutrition and plant physiology. His master thesis was focused on the application of compost-biochar mixture as means to mitigate nitrogen leaching during a cauliflower – cauliflower summer rotation. His work at the LUFA Speyer institute and in Bioland Gemuesehof Hoerz gave him valuable experience in crop production and crop quality control. His PhD work he performed as a part of a collaboration project between the ZMBP institute from University of Tuebingen and the Crop Science institute from University of Hohenheim. The topic of his work was the interplay between nutrition, senescence and cytosine methylation in A. thaliana. This project was part of a larger collaboration on yield stability in changing climatic conditions and provided the foundation and background that led to the development of EpiFlowScen. Additionally, during his masters and PhD years Dr. Emil Vatov gained an interest in statistical programming, data modeling and machine learning for improvement of experimental design and data analysis.
