Exploiting Epigenetic Variations for Crop Disease Resistance Improvement

Pathogen infections seriously threaten plant health and global crop production. Epigenetic processes such as DNA methylation, histone post-translational modifications, chromatin assembly and remodeling play important roles in transcriptional regulation of plant defense responses and could provide a new direction to drive breeding strategies for crop disease resistance improvement. Although past decades have seen unprecedented proceedings in understanding the epigenetic mechanism of plant defense response, most of these advances were derived from studies in model plants like Arabidopsis. In this review, we highlighted the recent epigenetic studies on crop-pathogen interactions and discussed the potentials, challenges, and strategies in exploiting epigenetic variations for crop disease resistance improvement.

Automated summary

Pathogen infections pose a serious threat to plant health and global crop production. Epigenetic processes play crucial roles in regulating plant defense responses and could be utilized to improve crop disease resistance. While significant progress has been made in understanding epigenetic mechanisms in model plants, further studies on crop-pathogen interactions are needed to fully exploit epigenetic variations for enhancing crop disease resistance.