Methylation Changes in Soybean Mid-Maturation Seed Parts

Seeds are comprised of three majors parts of distinct parental origin: the seed coat, embryo, and endosperm. The maternally-derived seed coat is important for nurturing and protecting the seeds during development. By contrast, the embryo and the endosperm are derived from a double fertilization event, where one sperm fertilizes the egg to form the diploid zygote and the other sperm fertilizes the central cell to form the triploid endosperm. Each seed parts undergo distinct developmental programs during seed development. What methylation changes occurring in the different seed parts, if any, remains unknown. To uncover the possible role of DNA methylation in different parts of the seed, we characterized the methylome of three major parts of an early maturation stage seed: seed coat, embryonic cotyledons, and embryonic axis using Illumina sequencing. Illumina sequencing of bisulfite-converted genomic DNA from three parts of an mid-maturation (B1) stage seed: seed coat (B1-SC), embryonic cotyledons (B1-COT), and embryonic axis (B1-AX).