α粒子辐照诱导拟南芥菜早期远程表观遗传改变研究

Induction of Early Long-range Epigenetic Changes by α-irradiation in Arabidopsis thaliana Plants

由于低能离子较低的组织穿透能力,其诱变机理一直是研究者争论的问题。近年来,本研究组的一系列研究工作已经证明在植物中存在辐射远程(诱变)效应,从一个新的角度解释了低能离子的诱变机理,然而依然无法解释低能离子辐照中的许多独特生物现象,而这些现象均具有明显的表观遗传学特性。以表观遗传学最具标志性特征的胞嘧啶甲基化为研究对象,以α粒子-拟南芥菜根辐照实验体系作为研究平台,检测了远程组织(器官)甲基化相关基因AtDML3的表达及特定基因片段的甲基化水平。研究证实,在植物个体水平辐射可以诱导远程表观遗传的变化,为进一步探索低能离子的诱变机理提供了新的思路。

Along the way,the mutagenic mechanism of low-energy ions irradiation is a debatable issue.Recently,the existence of radiation induced long-range（mutagenic） effects in vivo in plants has been performed in a series of studies of our group,which account for the mutagenesis of low-energy ions irradiation in a new perspective.However,numerous distinct biology phenomena remain to be addressed,which bear obvious characteristics to epigenetic.In the present study,using the expression of methylation-related AtDML3 gene and methylation level of specific gene segments as end points,the methylation of cytosine,the most important feature of epigenetic,was investigated.It was shown that,in A.thaliana,root-loca-lized α-irradiation could induce epigenetic changes in aerial parts which avoided the direct irradiation.The radiation induced long-range epigenetic changes were confirmed in this study,which supplied innovative ideas for the further investigation of the mutagenetic mechanism of low-energy ions irradiation.