Epigenetics of Cold Acclimation and Vernalization in Brachypodium distachyon

Many plants respond to prolonged cold exposure by increasing their freezing tolerance and transitioning to from a vegetative to a flowering state, i.e. vernalization. It is well known that increasing methylation of certain genes allows plants to measure cold exposure. However, the role of global epigenetic changes in mediating various cold responses are not well understood. Our aim is to identify the epigenetic control mechanisms involved in cold acclimation and vernalization in Brachypodium distachyon. To accomplish this, we applied several sequencing tools (RNA-Seq, ChIP-seq, small RNA-seq and Bisulfite-Seq) to seedlings subjected to cold for various amounts of time. Using data from these experiments we are characterizing the genome-wide changes in methylation, histone modification and binding, and small RNA expression in order to develop testable hypotheses about the role of epigenetic regulation in cold responses.