Identification of Histone Code Involved in Salt Tolerance

July 16, 2026

Hope for elucidating epigenetic control mechanisms unique to plants

An international joint research group comprising RIKEN CSRS and the University of Münster identified histone acetylation sites to enhance plant salt tolerance.

The research group used acetylome profiling in the model plant Arabidopsis to analyze hda19, a histone deacetylase (HDAC) mutant involved in controlling histone acetylation levels and known to increase salt tolerance. The joint group found that the levels in acetylation of lysins 27 and 36 in the histone H3.3 variant (H3.3K27acK36ac), one of the core histone proteins that orderly fold DNA within cells, is strongly induced in hda19 mutants. Salt tolerance was also conferred on plants when acetylation-mimic mutants, in which acetylated lysins were replaced with glutamines having similar electric charge properties and distribution, were expressed in the plants. These findings suggest that this hyper-acetylation induced in hda19 is the histone code that determines salt tolerance. The researchers identified the genes essential for hda19 to express salt tolerance through high-level acetylation. The results demonstrate that the hyper-acetylation, which differs from conventional patterns associated with salt tolerance, and uncharacterized genes are key to acquiring salt tolerance, making significant progress in understanding the epigenetic control mechanisms underlying it.

The results of this study are expected to contribute to the development of techniques to control environmental stress responses through breeding and chemical approaches that improve salt tolerance in plants.

 

Original article

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2534315123

F. Kotnik, M. Ueda, A. Ito, J. Ishida, S. Takahashi, K. Sakai, H. Takagi, J. Seidel, T. Abe, J. Eirich, S. Takahashi, D. Schwarzer, M. Seki, I. Finkemeier,

"HDA19-mediated deacetylation of histone H3.3 lysine 27 and 36 regulates plant sensitivity to salt stress".

Contact

Motoaki Seki; Team Director
Minoru Ueda; Research Scientist
Plant Genomic Network Research Team