Epigenetics: Possible applications in climate-smart crop breeding.

To better adapt transiently or lastingly to stimuli from the surrounding environment, the chromatin states in plant cells vary to allow the cells to fine tune their transcriptional profiles. Modifications in chromatin states include a wide range of histone post-transcriptional modifications, histone variants, DNA methylation and non-coding RNAs, which can arrange various chromatin states that epigenetically determine specific transcriptional outputs. Recent advancements in the area of -omics of major crops have facilitated identification of epigenetic marks and their effect on plant response to environmental stresses. As most of epigenetic mechanisms are known from studies in model plants, we summarize in this review recent epigenetic studies that may be important for improvement of crop adaptation and resilience to environmental changes, ultimately leading to the generation of stable climate-smart crops. This has paved the way to exploitation of epigenetic variation in crop breeding.