Table 1.

Involvement of DNA methylation in the response of plants to infections caused by pathogenic fungi

DNA methylation	Plant / pathogen	Influence on immunity	Ref.
RdDM pathway positively regulates resistance against necrotrophic fungi presumably by promoting JA signaling	A. thaliana / B. cinerea	positive	[67]
ROS1, DML2, and DML3 maintain or positively regulate expression of stress response genes	A. thaliana / F. oxysporum	positive	[68]
Hypomethylation of the LTR region in the promoter of the rice blast resistance gene Pit may be needed for higher Pit expression	Oryza sativa / Magnaporthe grisea	positive	[71]
Silencing MET1 (MET1 maintains the CG methylation of resistance genes)	Mulberry (Morus notabilis) / B. cinerea	positive	[72]
Most of the promoters of defense genes were hyper-methylated	Canola (Brassica napus) / Leptosphaeria maculans	positive	[73]
Mutants with downregulated DME showed increased susceptibility to fungal pathogens	A. thaliana / V. dahliae	negative	[74]
Change in methylation levels in multiple regions, especially in transposable element regions, during genome-wide analysis; for most regions, predominance of hypermethylation	Rice (Oryza sativa L. ssp. Indica) / M. oryzae	negative	[75]
In control and infected plants 932 differentially expressed genes (a set of resistance-related genes including R genes and candidate genes in metabolic and defense pathways) were associated with hypermethylation, and 603 with hypomethylation	Melon (Cucumis melo L.) / Podosphaera xanthii	positive	[76]
High levels of methylation at the DFR and RUBY promoters (genes involved in the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway)	Blood Orange (Citrus sinensis L. (Osbeck)) / Penicillium digitatum	positive	[77]
Differentially methylated regions with CHH-hypomethylated	Aegilops tauschii / Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici (Bgt)	positive	[78]