Bt Research 2025, Vol.16, No.3, 118-124 http://microbescipublisher.com/index.php/bt 122 treatment decisions. Nowadays, some epigenetic drugs (such as DNA methyltransferase inhibitors, histone deacetylase inhibitors) have entered clinical research, bringing new approaches to disease treatment (Sadida et al., 2023; Gao et al., 2024; Gu et al., 2024). Figure 2 Epigenetic modifications in Histone, DNA and RNA (Adopted from Chen et al., 2023) 6.2 Agricultural implications In agriculture, epigenetic modifications have brought new ideas to crop improvement and stress resistance enhancement. By regulating the epigenetic status of key genes, the growth, development and disease resistance of crops can be influenced. Because epigenetic modifications are reversible and relatively flexible, they have the potential to be used to cultivate new high-yield and stress-resistant crops. Epigenetic markers may also be applied in molecular breeding and quality monitoring, thereby enhancing the sustainability of agricultural production (Gao et al., 2024). 6.3 Research gaps Although epigenetic modifications have great potential in gene regulation and disease treatment, there are still many gaps in current research. First, epigenetic modifications themselves are dynamic and vary among different cells, which makes detection and analysis more complex. Second, the existing technologies are still limited in terms of spatiotemporal resolution and single-cell level research. Thirdly, epigenetic drugs have not been fully addressed in terms of targeting, specificity and safety. Some drugs may have off-target and toxic side effects (Sadida et al., 2023). 6.4 Future directions Future research needs to focus on developing high-resolution and single-cell-level epigenomics technologies, so as to better reveal the dynamic changes of modifications and intercellular differences. Multi-omics integration and artificial intelligence analysis are also expected to promote our overall understanding of epigenetic regulatory
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