Fig. 8

Cold reduces DNA methylation via upregulation of genes within the ROS1-pathway. Model depicting the observed transcriptional effect of cold treatment on expression of sugar beet homologs of DNA methylation- or demethylation-related genes a) mediating synthesis of s-adenosylmethionine or acting within b) the RdDM, c) methylation maintenance, or d) DNA demethylation pathways. The schematic illustration depicts differentially expressed sugar beet homologs of Arabidopsis genes, known to participate in the corresponding pathways as colored objects (blue to orange). (Homologs of) Additional genes contributing to each pathway, which were not differentially expressed in sugar beets in response to cold or for which no sugar beet homolog was identified, are shown as black-and-white structures to provide an overall representation of the entity of known players mediating the depicted mechanisms. Labels (corresponding to the gene name of each Arabidopsis homolog) and corresponding sugar beet accessions are provided for all DEGs in Additional File 2. For detailed functional description of the depicted genes and pathways, see main text