Extensive imprinted gene expression in Arabidopsis endosperm

Some flowering plant and vertebrate genes are expressed primarily or exclusively from either the maternal or paternal allele, a phenomenon called genomic imprinting. Flowering plant imprinted gene expression has been described primarily in endosperm, a terminal nutritive tissue consumed by the embryo during seed development or after germination. Imprinted expression in Arabidopsis thaliana endosperm is orchestrated by differences in cytosine DNA methylation between the paternal and maternal genomes, as well as by Polycomb group (PcG) proteins. Currently only eleven imprinted Arabidopsis genes are known. Here we use extensive sequencing of cDNA libraries to identify many new paternally and maternally imprinted genes in A. thaliana endosperm, including transcription factors, proteins involved in hormone signaling, and epigenetic regulators. The imprinted status of many maternally-expressed genes is not altered by mutations in the DNA-demethylating glycosylase DEMETER, the DNA methyltransferase MET1 or the core PcG protein FIE, indicating that these genes are regulated by novel mechanisms or deposited from maternal tissues. We did not find any imprinted genes in the embryo. Our results demonstrate that imprinted gene expression, particularly from the maternal genome, is an extensive, mechanistically complex phenomenon that likely affects multiple aspects of seed development. Epigenetics Examination of genomic imprinting in Arabidopsis endosperm