From chromatin to crop: epigenetic innovations in bioenergy systems

TL;DR

This paper explores how epigenetics can improve energy crops by enhancing their resilience and productivity through gene regulation.

Contribution

The paper reviews epigenetic mechanisms in bioenergy crops and identifies opportunities to leverage them for improved crop performance.

Findings

Epigenetic modifications like DNA methylation and histone changes influence key traits in bioenergy crops.

Epigenetics offers a dynamic way to improve crop resilience and yield without altering the genome.

Current knowledge is limited in energy crops compared to model species like Arabidopsis thaliana.

Abstract

Energy crops encompass a diverse array of plant species cultivated primarily as a source of biomass for energy generation and biofuel production. As such, they play a pivotal role in the transition to sustainable energy systems. However, their productivity is often limited by environmental stresses, nutrient availability, and the need for optimized yield. While traditional breeding and genetic engineering have driven improvements, challenges such as narrow genetic diversity, long development cycles, trait instability, and unexpected gene interactions remain. Epigenetics offers a largely untapped opportunity to overcome these constraints by regulating gene expression through mechanisms that are dynamic, finely tuned, and responsive to environmental and developmental cues. Epigenetic modifications including DNA methylation, histone post-translational changes, and small non-coding RNAs influence nearly all aspects of plant development and physiology, including traits central to bioenergy crops. While these mechanisms are well characterized in model species such as Arabidopsis thaliana, they remain underexplored in many purpose-grown energy crops. This review summarizes the current state of knowledge of epigenetic regulation in bioenergy species, explores how these mechanisms can be leveraged to enhance crop resilience and productivity, and identifies gaps in our understanding. By characterizing epigenetic mechanisms and harnessing epigenetic variation, we can expand the toolkit for developing resilient, high-yielding bioenergy crops to meet future environmental and energy demands.

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