Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 31, 2026

Methylated DNA Immunoprecipitation
Published on: January 2, 2009
Aging drives a program of DNA methylation decay in plant organs
Dawei Dai1, Ken Chen1, Jingwen Tao1
1Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
None:
Plants display a wide range of life spans and aging rates. Although dynamic changes to DNA methylation are a hallmark of aging in mammals, it is unclear whether similar molecular signatures reflect rates of aging and organism life span in plants. In this work, we show that the short-lived model plant Arabidopsis thaliana exhibits a loss of epigenetic integrity during aging, which causes DNA methylation decay and the expression of transposable elements. We show that the rate of epigenetic aging can be manipulated by extending or curtailing life span and that shoot apical meristems are protected from these epigenetic changes. We demonstrate that a program of transcriptional repression suppresses DNA methylation maintenance pathways during aging and that mutants of this program display a complete absence of epigenetic decay while physical aging remains unaffected.
Related Concept Videos
Radioactive Decay and Radiometric Dating
Nonsense-mediated mRNA Decay
Usually, Upf3 binds to an Exon Junction Complex (EJC) at mRNA splice sites. If a ribosome fully translates the mRNA,...
Interference and Decay
Interference occurs when competing memories hinder the retrieval of particular information. It can be classified into two types: proactive and retroactive interference. Proactive...
Organic Compounds
Resting Potential Decay
At rest, the K+ is the main ion that moves across the membrane...
Seedless Vascular Plants

