Comparative analysis of H3K4 and H3K27 trimethylations in two contrasting Tibetan hulless barely varieties on powdery mildew infection

Powdery mildew has been recognized as a destructive foliar disease for Tibetan hulless barley and causes huge economic losses every year. However, little is known about the genetic and molecular basis of resistance to powdery mildew in hulless barley, especially the epigenetic mechanism. To understand the change patterns of histone modification after pathogen inoculation, we performed a genome-wide analysis of H3K4 and H3K27 trimethylations of samples from five time points using two different barley varieties (G7 is resistant to powdery mildew and Z13 is susceptible). By integration analysis of ChIP-seq and transcriptome data, we found that more than 80% of differential expressed genes may be regulated by differentially chromatin modification, suggesting that epigenetic changes have an important regulatory role in resistance response to powdery mildew. Our study provides a first glimpse into epigenetic regulation in disease response in barley, and these data represent a resource to the community for future exploitation of molecular mechanisms underlying disease resistance response.