

UMR Profiling in Faba Bean
Rose Mary Paul
ACGG Cohort 2, JLU
This project focuses on investigating the role of unmethylated regions (UMRs) in the faba bean genome, aiming to enhance crop improvement using epigenetic modifications, particularly DNA methylation. DNA methylation, which is inherited through meiosis or mitosis, plays a critical role in gene silencing and gene expression regulation. The project highlights the importance of UMRs, which are typically unmethylated or hypomethylated and associated with gene expression, especially in a large genome sized crop like faba bean. UMRs overlap with functional elements like transcription factor binding motifs and cis-regulatory elements (CREs), which govern gene expression. The project involves application of novel UMR profiling protocol and analysis pipeline, which is a cost-effective alternative to whole genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS). This pipeline, initially developed for maize and wheat, will be tailored for faba bean to identify functional and regulatory regions.