RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 TET-mediated epimutagenesis of the Arabidopsis thaliana methylome JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 151027 DO 10.1101/151027 A1 Lexiang Ji A1 William T. Jordan A1 Xiuling Shi A1 Lulu Hu A1 Chuan He A1 Robert J. Schmitz YR 2017 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/20/151027.abstract AB DNA methylation in the promoters of plant genes often leads to transcriptional repression, and the wholesale removal of DNA methylation in methyltransferase mutants results in severe gene expression and developmental defects. However, many cases of naturally-occurring DNA methylation variations have been reported, where the differential expression of differentially methylated genes are responsible for agronomically important traits. The ability to manipulate plant methylomes to generate populations of epigenetically distinct plants could provide invaluable resources for breeding and research. Here we describe a novel “epimutagenesis” method to rapidly generate methylation variations 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 and the redistribution of heterochromatin, mimicking mutants in the maintenance DNA methyltransferase met1. Application of TET-mediated epimutagenesis to agriculturally significant plants may result in differential expression of alleles typically silenced by DNA methylation, uncovering previously hidden traits.