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SUMMARY:Transcriptomic and Epigenetic Insights into Flowering and Sexual R
 eproduction in L. aequinoctialis
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260929T124500Z
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260929T130000Z
DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260916T130439Z
UID:indico-contribution-2903@cern.ch
DESCRIPTION:Speakers: Cristian Mateo-Elizalde (Cold Spring Harbor Laborato
 ry)\nDuckweeds are aquatic monocotyledons including the smallest and faste
 st-growing angiosperms. They predominantly propagate clonally\, making sex
 ual reproduction and floral development poorly explored. The most fertile 
 duckweed species belong to the section Alatae\, which includes Lemna aequi
 noctialis\, Lemna perpusilla and recently described interspecific hybrids 
 including L. x aoukikusa (Stepanenko et al.\, 2025). To investigate the mo
 lecular basis of duckweed sexual reproduction\, we generated transcriptomi
 c profiles of reproductive tissues from the highly fertile hybrid accessio
 n L. aequinoctialis 8011. As a relatively recent hybridization event\, la8
 011 constitutes an excellent model for studying flowering because of its h
 ighly synchronized floral development and the ability to evaluate the cont
 ribution of each subgenome.\n\nDuckweed evolution has been associated with
  gene loss linked to clonal propagation\, including components of the RNA-
 directed DNA methylation (RdDM) pathway (Ernst et al.\, 2025). This is ref
 lected in the absence of the canonical 24-nt small RNA peak (Ernst et al.\
 , 2025\; Dombey et al.\, 2025). Our transcriptomic data reveal activation 
 of genes involved in 24-nt small RNA biogenesis during flowering\, consist
 ent with preliminary small RNA-seq findings where these elements are resto
 red. Additionally\, we observed a slight increase in CHH methylation in an
 thers\, seeds\, embryos and endosperms\, supporting activation of the RdDM
  pathway. \n\nThese findings suggest that reproductive development is acco
 mpanied by finely tuned\, cell-specific epigenetic reprogramming that rese
 ts epigenetic marks accumulated during clonal propagation. Together\, our 
 results provide new insight into the genomic\, and epigenetic dynamics und
 erlying natural hybridization and flowering\, establishing a molecular fra
 mework for future duckweed breeding.\n\nhttps://indico.unina.it/event/117/
 contributions/2903/
LOCATION:Department of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Napoli F
 ederico II\, Portici\, Italy Sala Cinese
URL:https://indico.unina.it/event/117/contributions/2903/
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