Genetics is the science of studying genes that are organized and compacted
into nucleosomes and chromatin. Several cases, involving the incorporation of
important genes or knocking out others, have been used over the last decades in crop
and food applications. Because genetically modified crops are banned and/or ethically
under debate, epigenetics that studies gene regulation is thought to have an impact on
crop production in future applications. Epigenetics refers to the study of heritable
changes in gene expressions without changes in the gene sequence. Epigenetics
regulation of gene expression is applied by histone modifications, DNA methylation,
histone variants, chromatin remodeling, and small RNAs. This chapter describes what
becomes known in plant epigenetics, and future expectations that can employ
epigenetics in order to improve crops and produce higher levels of vitamins and
proteins that are important for food production and human health.
Keywords: DNA methylation, Epigenetics, Epimutation, Genetics, Genome
editing technology, GM crops, Histone modifications, Nutritional epigenetics,
RNA dependent DNA methylation, RNA epigenetics.
