Plants are constantly challenged by various stresses at all phases of development, and epigenetic modifications play a crucial role in the adaptive evolution to the changing environment. Recent studies have shown that genomic hypermethylation and locus-specific DNA demethylation induced by cold, salinity and other stimuli would inhibit the dele-terious gene mutations and increase the expression of stress responsive genes. The mutants of histone acetyltransferase (GCN5) and histone deacetylase (HDA6 and HDA19) genes displayed hypersensitivity to ABA and salinity stresses. Histone acetylation and methylation exert a cumulative or synergistic effect on the expression of stress-responsive genes. The inter-actions between H2A.Z-containing nucleosomes and DNAs mediate the thermosensory responses in Arabidopsis. Further-more, there are reports that drought, high temperature and salinity stress responses can be modulate by chromatin remodel-ing complexes SWI/SNF. In this review, we summarized previously published researches on the epigenetic regulation of plant stress response.
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