Stochastic changes in cytosine methylation are a source of heritable epigenetic and
phenotypic diversity in plants. Using the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, we derive robust …

Stochastic gains and losses of DNA methylation at CG dinucleotides are a frequent
occurrence in plants. These spontaneous 'epimutations' occur at a rate that is 100 000 times …

Mistakes in the maintenance of CG methylation are a source of heritable epimutations in
plants. Multigenerational surveys indicate that the rate of these stochastic events varies …

Contents Summary 1253 I. Introduction 1253 II. What is the rate and molecular spectrum of
spontaneous epimutations? 1254 III. Do spontaneous epimutations have phenotypic …

There has been much excitement about the possibility that exposure to specific
environments can induce an ecological memory in the form of whole-sale, genome-wide …

We extensively phenotyped 6000 Arabidopsis plants with experimentally perturbed DNA
methylomes as well as a diverse panel of natural accessions in a common garden. We …

Heritable epigenetic polymorphisms, such as differential cytosine methylation, can underlie
phenotypic variation,. Moreover, wild strains of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana differ in many …

Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) is ideally suited for studies of natural phenotypic
variation. This species has also provided an unparalleled experimental system to explore …

Evolution is fueled by phenotypic diversity, which is in turn due to underlying heritable
genetic (and potentially epigenetic) variation. While environmental factors are well known to …

Background Differences in DNA methylation can arise as epialleles, which are loci that differ
in chromatin state and are inherited over generations. Epialleles offer an additional source …