Abstract

Epigenetics refers to the heritable changes in gene activity without altering the DNA sequence. DNA methylation along with other epigenetic mechanisms is involved in the chromatin remodeling. This remodeling, especially in plants, plays an important role in the activation or silencing of specific genes as well as other genomic regions in response to the developmental and environmental clues. Environmental clues, biotic and abiotic stresses trigger the shift in the site specific as well as genome wide DNA methylation patterns which influences the plant response to these situations through gene regulation. Therefore, it is of prime importance to analyze variation in the DNA methylation pattern under stress conditions. This review summarizes the topic of DNA methylation by providing the basic/conceptual knowledge and some cases of DNA methylation shift due to stresses.

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