在这项工作中，研究团队表明，短寿模式植物拟南芥在衰老过程中表现出表观遗传完整性的丧失，这导致DNA甲基化衰变和转座因子的表达。该课题组人员发现表观遗传老化的速度可以通过延长或缩短寿命来控制，并且茎尖分生组织可以免受这些表观遗传变化的影响。该研究团队证明，在衰老过程中，转录抑制程序抑制DNA甲基化维持途径，并且该程序的突变体完全没有表观遗传衰退，而物理衰老仍不受影响。
据了解，植物表现出广泛的寿命和衰老速度。尽管DNA甲基化的动态变化是哺乳动物衰老的标志，但尚不清楚类似的分子特征是否反映了植物的衰老速度和生物体寿命。
附：英文原文
Title: Aging drives a program of DNA methylation decay in plant organs
Author: Dawei Dai, Ken Chen, Jingwen Tao, Ben P. Williams
Issue&Volume: 2026-01-29
Abstract: Plants display a wide range of life spans and aging rates. Although dynamic changes to DNA methylation are a hallmark of aging in mammals, it is unclear whether similar molecular signatures reflect rates of aging and organism life span in plants. In this work, we show that the short-lived model plant Arabidopsis thaliana exhibits a loss of epigenetic integrity during aging, which causes DNA methylation decay and the expression of transposable elements. We show that the rate of epigenetic aging can be manipulated by extending or curtailing life span and that shoot apical meristems are protected from these epigenetic changes. We demonstrate that a program of transcriptional repression suppresses DNA methylation maintenance pathways during aging and that mutants of this program display a complete absence of epigenetic decay while physical aging remains unaffected.
DOI: adu2392
Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adu2392