[Seminars] PSB event reminder

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Calendar Name: seminars
Scheduled for: Tuesday, January 31 2012, 12:00 - 13:30
Event text:    Dr Jose Gutierrez-Marcos
	       
	       School of Life Sciences
	       University of Warwick 
	       
	       Warwick 
	       UK
Details:       “Epigenetic basis of adaptation to stress in plants”
	       
	       ABSTRACT
	       Plants are sessile organisms that are known for their
	       adaptive plasticity to the changing environment. In
	       addition to directly influencing on plant growth,
	       environmental changes not only influence gene expression
	       patterns but also affect the stability of the genome.
	       Both of these responses are mediated by epigenetic
	       mechanisms which can also cause phenotypic changes that
	       can be transmitted and remain stable for several
	       generations. In this respect, the formation of
	       “environmental epialleles” and their maintenance
	       represents an important, albeit unexplored, source of
	       variation and adaptive power that can be manipulated to
	       improve the way plants adapt to a changing environment.
	       However, the precise mechanisms regulating this
	       epigenetic phenomenon remain unknown. We have
	       investigated the impact that abiotic environmental
	       stress has on the formation of new allelic variants by
	       the genome-wide epigenetic profiling. Our recent work
	       provides evidence of small RNAs directly involved in
	       directing DNA methylation to discrete loci of the maize
	       genome. I will discuss the possible mechanism(s) by
	       which environmental change is able to destabilize the
	       plant epigenome and contribute to the so-called 
	       “epigenetic memory” and adaptation to stress in plants.

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