Q5 - H2A.Z Occupancy and Temperature-Driven Flowering
Dame Jean Thomas (1942-present) discovered that eukaryotic DNA is tightly wrapped around histone proteins. Sir Adrian Bird (1947-present) helped explain the epigenetic marks of DNA. For example, the classical histone H2A, can be replaced by a variant, H2A.Z. H2A.Z occupancy on a pro-flowering gene (1) in Arabidopsis plants (2) of the same age, at different temperatures, was measured.
Using the information and data, determine which of the statements are true or which are false.
A. Increasing temperature increases pro-flowering gene expression.
B. H2A.Z enhances gene expression.
C. Temperature moves the locations to which H2A.Z binds in the genome.
D. Plants that flower early may have increased H2A.Z occupancy in this gene before flowering.
Question reproduced from IBO 2017, Theoretical Exam A, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 - attributed to the International Biology Olympiad. Open the full exam PDF · Official answer key & worked solutions