Epigenetics – The Molecular Tool in Understanding Abiotic Stress Response in Plants

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reactions towards biotic and abiotic stressors that has over 20,413 items

across 456 carefully selected articles and over 10,600 distinct stress-induced

proteins. Since the interface and the analytical tools, such as the query

engine, gene ontology, cross-referencing, as well as expression impressions

on desired proteins implicated for stressors are user-friendly, so the Plant-

PReS is an important facility of the plant stress society (Mousavi et al., 2016;

Sobhanian et al., 2020).

The stress responsive transcription factor database (STIFDB v.2) (http://

caps.ncbs.res.in/stifdb2/) has grown to a huge information hub related to

Arabidopsis thaliana abiotic stress-responsive genes that may be used to find

probable Transcription Factor Binding region on their promoters. HMM-

based models are used to identify the binding sites of transcription factors

of 10 different families of transcription factors. The curators cross-check the

method’s probable Transcription Factor Binding Sites to published research

reports (Naika et al., 2013). There is currently no metabolomics database

available that are primarily focused on abiotic stressors.

12.8 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE PROSPECTS

Plants suffer a range of alterations to adapt to their environment because they

are subjected to continuously fluctuating natural circumstances. In the last two

decades, the mechanism of epigenetic inheritance, as well as its importance,

has been investigated a lot in plants, concerning abiotic stress. Although there

are still opportunities for understanding epigenetics to promote novel and

better approaches to crop development. Histone modification along with the

chromatin remodeling, i.e., the open (accessible for transcription) or closed

(concealed for transcription) configuration can regulate expression of a gene

either positively or negatively, respectively. DNA methylation regulates tran­

scription by engaging proteins occupied during inhibition of gene expression

or blocking transcription factor(s) from interacting with DNA. Plant sRNAs

usually carry out their biological functions by inhibiting specific targets.

The different molecular tools of epigenetics are undoubtedly essential in

understanding and controlling abiotic stress response in plants. These tools

can also be utilized in regulating stress tolerance and the production of

stress-resistant crop plants. The journey of epigenetics started way back in

1942 when Conrad Hal Waddington coined the term. Epigenetics is a huge

mountain of information. To date, only a few pebbles have been unearthed

thanks to modern technology and the devotion of researchers. With improved