A balance of de novo and maintenance activities governs epigenetic inheritance of CG methylation in Arabidopsis transposons
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ABSTRACT: Dnmt1/MET1 methyltransferases mediate the epigenetic inheritance of cytosine methylation within CG dinucleotides (mCG). These enzymes use a semiconservative mechanism previously expected to produce binary present/absent methylation patterns. However, we show here that in Arabidopsis thaliana h1ddm1 mutants, intermediate heterochromatic mCG is quantitatively associated with transposon expression and is stably inherited across many generations. We develop a mathematical model that estimates the rates of semiconservative maintenance failure and de novo methylation at each transposon, demonstrating that mCG can be stably inherited at any level via a dynamical balance of these activities. We find that DRM2 – the core methyltransferase of the RNA-directed DNA methylation pathway – catalyzes most of the heterochromatic de novo mCG, with de novo rates orders of magnitude higher than previously thought, whereas chromomethylases make smaller contributions. Our results demonstrate that mCG epigenetic inheritance in plant heterochromatin is highly dynamic, with CG sites frequently switching methylation states.
ORGANISM(S): Arabidopsis thaliana
PROVIDER: GSE197718 | GEO | 2023/02/17
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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