Arabidopsis thaliana strain:Col-0 Epigenomics

Evolution is fuelled by phenotypic diversity, which is in turn due to underlying heritable genetic (and potentially epigenetic) variation. However, the extent to which the environment influences the accumulation of novel variation is relatively unknown. Here we use whole-genome and whole-methylome sequencing to test if a specific environmental stress (high-salinity soil) changes the frequency and molecular profile of accumulated mutations and epimutations (changes in cytosine methylation status) in Mutation Accumulation (MA) lineages of Arabidopsis thaliana.