Dynamics of DNA methylation and genomic imprinting in arabidopsis

DNA methylation is an epigenetic mark that is highly conserved and important in diverse cellular processes, ranging from transposon silencing to genomic imprinting. In plants, DNA methylation is both mitotically and meiotically heritable, and changes in DNA methylation can be generationally stable and have long-lasting consequences. This thesis aims to improve understanding of DNA methylation dynamics in plants, particularly across generations and during reproduction. In the first project, I present an analysis of the generational dynamics of gene body methylation using recombinant inbred lines derived from differentially methylated parents. I show that while gene body methylation is highly generationally stable, changes in methylation state occur nonrandomly and are enriched in regions of intermediate methylation.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computational and Systems Biology Program

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Picard, Colette Lafontaine.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mary Gehring.

• Computational and Systems Biology Program.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122539

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/122539