How to improve crop pathogen resistance with epigenetics

TL;DR

This paper reviews how epigenetic changes in plants can boost their resistance to pathogens, offering new strategies for sustainable agriculture.

Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive review of epigenetic mechanisms in plant immunity and highlights emerging technologies for epigenome editing.

Findings

Epigenetic modifications like histone changes and DNA methylation regulate plant defense genes.

ATP-dependent chromatin remodelers and non-coding RNA fine-tune plant immune responses.

Epigenome editing technologies show promise for improving crop resilience to pathogens.

Abstract

Crop losses due to pathogens are a critical global challenge threatening food security and agricultural sustainability. Recent advances in plant science have highlighted the role of epigenetic regulation in plant immunity. This review examines current insights into how plants utilize epigenetic modifications, focusing on histone modifications, DNA methylation changes, and chromatin remodelling, to modulate defence gene expression and adapt to biotic stress. We explore how histone modifications influence both basal and induced immune responses through key enzymes and we examine the dual roles of DNA methylation in transcriptional activation and repression. Additionally, the review discusses ATP-dependent chromatin remodelling complexes and non-coding RNA to highlight their contribution in fine tuning plant immunity. Finally, we discuss emerging technologies involved in epigenome editing and identify the knowledge gaps that must be addressed before translating our findings into making resilient agricultural systems.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s42483-025-00393-7.

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