Comparative analysis of DNA methylation changes in two rice genotypes under salt stress and subsequent recovery

DNA methylation, which is one of the best understood epigenetic phenomena, plays an important role in plant responses to environmental stimuli. The rice introgression line IL177-103 and its recurrent parent IR64, which show contrasting salt stress tolerance, were used to characterize DNA methylation changes under salt stress and subsequent recovery using methylation-sensitive amplified polymorphism (MSAP) analysis. The introgression line IL177-103 showed significantly improved tolerance to salinity, as represented by higher relative water content, endogenous abscisic acid content, activity of reactive oxygen species scavenging enzymes, and lower Na+ concentration in shoots, compared with IR64. The MSAP results showed that less than 10.5% of detected DNA methylation sites were genotype specific, in line with their similar genetic background. Salt-induced DNA methylation changes in both genotypes were mostly detected in roots, and the major portion of the salt-induced DNA demethylation/methylation alterations remained even after recovery, implying their inheritance in the present generation. Furthermore, a few sites with stable DNA methylation differences were identified between salt-tolerant IL177-103 and salt-sensitive IR64, thus providing genotype-specific epigenetic markers. Collectively, these results provide valuable data for further dissection of the molecular mechanisms of salt-stress response and tolerance in rice.