DNA Methylation in Rice and Relevance for Breeding

The challenge of sustaining food security in the context of global changes is at the heart of plant research. Environmental stresses, in particular, are known to impact genome stability and epigenetic mechanisms. Epigenetic pathways are well characterized in plants, particularly in the dicotyledon model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, but an increasing number of epigenetic and epigenomic studies are also performed on rice (Oryza sativa). Rice represents a major food crop of worldwide importance and is also a good model for monocotyledons owing to its relatively small genome size and fully sequenced well-annotated genome. Today, the main regulators of DNA methylation are identified in rice. Moreover, compared to Arabidopsis, rice has an important evolutionary history due to human selection since its domestication. DNA methylation may be involved in both adaptation and agronomic performances and thus, a better understanding of epigenetic regulations in rice should contribute to improving the adaptation of crops to a changing environment. In this review, we expose the current knowledge on DNA methylation in rice and future perspectives to be considered.