In eukaryotes, epigenetic modifications of histones are one of the many mechanisms allowing the dynamic control of DNA accessibility. These modifications are multiple and occur in a precise and hierarchical order during the transcription of genes into mRNA in animal cells. The team of Wen-Hui Shen, in collaboration with the team of Meike Van Lijsebettens (VIB, Ghent, Belgium), demonstrated that this order was much less strict in Arabidopsis and that a certain flexibility could exist in the interdependence between different histone modifications. This study is published in the journal New Phytologist.
