To acetylate or deacetylate? WIND1 directs opposing H3K27 modifications in plant somatic cell reprogramming.

Understanding the mechanisms that trigger the embryogenic program in plant somatic cells remains a major focus of modern molecular biology, because this process is widely used for clonal propagation, cryopreservation, and genetic transformation. Recently, Iwase et al. demonstrated that the transcription factor WOUND INDUCED DEDIFFERENTIATION 1 (WIND1) can simultaneously promote histone H3 acetylation at lysine 27 and induce expression of genes associated with the embryogenic response, while also activating deacetylation of this histone and repressing genes associated with differentiation.