Environment-Induced Chromatin Reorganisation and Plant Acclimation

Plants have developed a striking flexibility to adapt to changes in their environment, as they cannot flee from detrimental conditions. At the same time, they are also able to exploit favourable conditions to their benefit. This great adaptability is underlain by versatile regulation of gene transcription. It has become apparent that numerous signals, ranging from biotic (e.g. pathogen infections) to abiotic (e.g. shade, heat) environmental stimuli but also endogenous developmental signals, affect the compactness of chromatin, a process that is associated with transcriptional reprogramming. The mechanisms by which these signals induce the changes in chromatin condensation and, in return, whether chromatin compaction contributes to physiological acclimation to a changing environment are currently not well understood. In this chapter we discuss the available literature on how environmental and endogenous signals instigate large-scale chromatin remodelling in plants and how this results in acclimation to a changing environment, with a focus on the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.