PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Lexiang Ji
AU  - William T. Jordan
AU  - Xiuling Shi
AU  - Lulu Hu
AU  - Chuan He
AU  - Robert J. Schmitz
TI  - TET-mediated epimutagenesis of the <em>Arabidopsis thaliana</em> methylome
AID  - 10.1101/151027
DP  - 2018 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 151027
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/01/09/151027.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/01/09/151027.full
AB  - DNA methylation in the promoters of plant genes sometimes leads to transcriptional repression, and the wholesale removal of DNA methylation as seen in methyltransferase mutants results in drastic changes in gene expression and severe developmental defects. However, many cases of naturally-occurring DNA methylation variations have been reported, whereby the altered expression of differentially methylated genes is responsible for agronomically important traits. The ability to manipulate plant methylomes to generate populations of epigenetically distinct individuals could provide invaluable resources for breeding and research purposes. Here we describe “epimutagenesis”, a novel method to rapidly generate variation of DNA methylation through random demethylation of the Arabidopsis thaliana genome. This method involves the expression of a human Ten-eleven translocation (TET) enzyme, and results in widespread hypomethylation that can be inherited to subsequent generations, mimicking mutants in the maintenance DNA methyltransferase met1. Application of TET-mediated epimutagenesis to agriculturally significant plants may result in differential expression of alleles normally silenced by DNA methylation, uncovering previously hidden phenotypic variations.