sRNA screening in transgenerational stress experiment in dandelion

Plants can show long-term effects of environmental stresses and in some cases a stress ‘memory’ has been reported to persist across generations, potentially mediated by epigenetic mechanisms. However, few documented cases exist of transgenerational effects that persist for multiple generations and it remains unclear if or how epigenetic mechanisms are involved. This study screens the sRNA composition of genetically uniform Dandelion plants two generations after a single-generation exposure to environmental stress (drought and salicylic acid), to test if a stress response is inherited epigenetically for multiple generations. The small RNA composition is compared to plants that received a control treatment two generations ago.