Genome-wide methylation and their transgenerational heritability pattern in Arabidopsis thaliana populations originated along the elevation of West Himalaya

Methylation at 5' cytosine of DNA molecule is an important epigenetic mark. It is known to play critical role in adaptation of organisms under different biotic and abiotic stressors via modulating gene expression and/or chromatin architecture. Plant populations evolved under variable climatic conditions may have evolved different epigenetic marks including DNA methylation. Here, we describe the genome-wide DNA methylation and their heritability in three Arabidopsis thaliana populations originated at different elevation ranges of Indian west Himalayas. We show that the global methyl cytosine (mC) content is more or less similar in the three populations but differ in their distribution across genome.