Intergenerational effects of dehydroascorbic acid treatment on rice transcriptome

The intergenerational effects of lifelong treatment of rice plants with a previously described IR stimulus (dehydroascorbic acid or DHA) were investigated by mRNA sequencing. Samples of embryonic tissue, endosperm, roots of first generation offspring and roots of second generation offspring were taken and investigated for transcriptional changes as compared to offspring of mock-treated plants. The role of an intact DNA methylation machinery in transmitting the DHA-IR phenotype to the offspring was investigated by including root samples of the offspring of DHA- and mock-treated rice plants that are impaired in DNA methylation (ago4ab RNAi line) and DNA demethylation (ros1c mutant line).