Do the plants sleep?

Thinking about plant curiosities? One question is: Do the plants sleep?

 

1- Time to go to bed

In essence, sleep is defined as a behavior. We sleep when we are in a  state where a weak disturbance will not awake us, but a strong disturbance will revert this state rapidly.

However, we can explain sleep in animals in other ways. The period of sleep is to save energy, repair the body, and direct the energy to functions less active when we are awake.

 

2- The night is to eat sweets

During the evening, plants do very different activities compared to the day.

When it is day, plants focus on absorbing light and producing sugar, for example.

When it is night, plants focus on consuming sugar, producing proteins, and
growing.

 

3- As different as day and night

Then... do plants sleep? Sleep is mainly described as animal behaviour, that appeared very early in animal evolution.

However, different uses of energy happen to plants during the day and night and when animals are asleep and awake.

So, plants don’t sleep like us. But, like humans, do different activities during the evening compared to the day.

 

 

 

 

The main references are:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41583-018-0098-9

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-3040.2007.01708.x

 

Text and video by Maira Marins Dourado, PhD Student EpiSeedLink Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

 

Frontal image by <a href="https://www.freepik.es/foto-gratis/mujer-descansando-hierba_2042318.htm#page=9&query=plantas%20durmiendo&position=31&from_view=search&track=ais&uuid=eb8662d1-a889-4e00-b157-94e6f57cae34">Freepik</a>

by EpiSeedLink

Immunoflorescence technique used in epigenetic research

As researchers, most of us currently perform Western Blots and PCR, but working in the field of epigenetics, we can use other techniques.

Immunofluorescence is an immunohistochemistry technique that uses fluorophores to visualize cellular antigens, such as proteins.

This technique can be utilized to visualize the localization of various cellular components within cells and within cell compartments.

In epigenetics, it's largely used to observe the distribution of different histone modifications or histone variants and so to have an idea of the nuclear organization and chromatin landscape.

For instance, this allows us to see heterochromatic and euchromatic regions within the nucleus and how their distribution changes in different conditions.

 

The key steps of the protocol are:

    • Fixation with formaldehyde, to prevent the degradation of your sample
    • Incubation with a primary antibody that specifically recognizes the protein of interest or the PTM of interest
    • Incubation with a secondary antibody coupled to a fluorophore and, if your protein interacts with DNA don't forget to stain your sample with DAPI!
    • Observation with a fluorescence microscope or a confocal microscope

 

 

 

Text by Stefania Paltrinieri, PhD Student EpiSeedLink Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

 

Frontal image by Nicola Ferrari

by EpiSeedLink

Evolution of Brassica napus

 

  • Brassica napus is a crop species of economic importance. It is cultivated worldwide as oil and livestock crops.
  • It belongs to the genus Brassica, tribe Brassiceae of the family Brassicaceae.
  • The genus Brassica includes many important crops. Among them, relationship of six species formed the model of U’s triangle, with three basic diploid species B. rapa (A genome, n = 10), B. oleracea (C genome, n = 9) and B. nigra (B genome, n = 8) gave rise to three amphidiploid species B. napus (AC genome, n = 19), B. juncea (AB genome, n = 18) and B. carinata (BC genome, n = 17).

 

 

 

Text by Shreyas Padmanabha Sharma Beedubail, PhD Student EpiSeedLink Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

 

 

Source:

 

by EpiSeedLink

DNA methylation lecture

This lecture will illustrate the DNA methylation landscape, specially focused on DNA methylation in plants.

It is part of the training of doctoral students from the EpiSeedLink consortium.

 

 

Fellows will learn among other topics about:

    • Mammalian methyltransferases
    • DNA methylation and genomic imprinting
    • DNA methylation in Plants
    • Selected functions of DNA methylation in Plants

 

The conference is given by Dr. Ueli Grossniklaus, one of the EpiSeedLink Supervisors, belonging to the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology of  Zurich University.

 

 

 

Frontal image by <a href="https://www.freepik.es/foto-gratis/concepto-representacion-adn_44999160.htm#page=2&query=DNA%20methylation&position=20&from_view=search&track=ais&uuid=2c1dcf5f-91fc-4b24-a947-016a83c040ea">Freepik</a>

by EpiSeedLink