Epigenetic control of plant senescence and cell death and its application in crop improvement

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Oct 30:14:1258487. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1258487. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

Plant senescence is the last stage of plant development and a type of programmed cell death, occurring at a predictable time and cell. It involves the functional conversion from nutrient assimilation to nutrient remobilization, which substantially impacts plant architecture and plant biomass, crop quality, and horticultural ornamental traits. In past two decades, DNA damage was believed to be a main reason for cell senescence. Increasing evidence suggests that the alteration of epigenetic information is a contributing factor to cell senescence in organisms. In this review, we summarize the current research progresses of epigenetic and epitranscriptional mechanism involved in cell senescence of plant, at the regulatory level of DNA methylation, histone methylation and acetylation, chromatin remodeling, non-coding RNAs and RNA methylation. Furthermore, we discuss their molecular genetic manipulation and potential application in agriculture for crop improvement. Finally we point out the prospects of future research topics.

Keywords: DNA methylation; RNA methylation; cell senescence of plant; chromatin remodeling; crop improvement; epigenetic manipulation; histone modifications; non-coding RNAs.

Publication types

  • Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the grant of National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 32001437 to YZ, 31770318 to YM), and by the grant of Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (grant number 2021J02025 to YM, 2022J01597 to YZ), and by the grant of Young Foundation of Fujian Provincial Education Department (No. JAT200708 to DH), The Laboratory Program of Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Functional Biology (No.FJ-PFB20201002 to DH).