High temperature and water deficit cause epigenetic changes in somatic plants of Pinus radiata D. Don

Current climate changes imply an imminent risk for forest species. In this context, somatic embryogenesis is a valuable tool to study the response of plants to different abiotic stresses. Based on this, we applied a high-temperature regime (50 °C, 5 min) during the maturation of Pinus radiata D. Don embryogenic masses in order to evaluate the development of an epigenetic memory months later. Therefore, somatic plants (SP) resulting from somatic embryos (ses) maturated at control temperature and cultivated in a greenhouse were submitted to heat stress (40 °C, 2 h, 10 days; 23 °C, 10 days) or at a control temperature (23 °C, 20 days); while another 20 SP resulting from ses maturated in the two temperature regimes and cultivated in the greenhouse were submitted to drought stress or weekly irrigated. All plants were evaluated for relative water content, water potential, electrolyte leakage, stomatal conductance, transpiration, methylation (5-mC) and hydroxymethylation (5-hmC) levels. The results showed that the SP obtained from ses maturated at 50 °C showed an adaptation to drought stress based on water potential and transpiration. Furthermore, SP kept under heat stress in a greenhouse showed lower 5-hmC levels than SP kept at 23 °C. Furthermore, the 5-hmC and 5-hmC/5-mC ratio showed a significantly negative correlation with changes in water potential; and a significantly negative correlation was observed between the levels of stomatal conductance and 5-mC. We conclude that the manipulation of conditions during the maturation process in somatic embryogenesis modulates the physiological characteristics of the SP obtained.