M.S. Hanif, N. Asif Beyond, DNA,plant. epigenetics 238-241 2 (5) September, 2026 For decades, crop improvement has been described mainly as a search for better genes. Breeders cross parents, select useful plants and advance generations until desirable traits are combined in a new variety. But plants do not read their DNA in a simple on-or-off manner. The same DNA sequence can behave differently depending on how it is chemically marked, how chromatin is arranged and how environmental signals influence gene activity.