Epigenetic Regulation and Plant Adaptation to Environmental Stress: Towards New Strategies for Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract

Plants are constantly exposed to various environmental stress, such as drought, salinity, extreme temperatures and pathogen attacks, which have a negative impact on their growth and development. In response to these stresses, highly complex molecular processes are activated, epigenetic mechanisms being among the most important. These mechanisms, which include DNA methylation, histone modifications and non-coding RNAs, regulate gene expression and modify the plant's response to abiotic stresses. In this chapter, we highlight progress on the epigenetic mechanisms associated with the evolution of plants to adapt to abiotic stress. Combined with knowledge gleaned from other omics approaches, these strategies will facilitate the identification of regulatory networks and their dynamics under stress, enabling the development of strategies for sustainable agriculture that will ensure yield security in a context of climate change.