Transcriptional gene silencing by Arabidopsis Microrchidia homologues involves the formation of heteromers
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Epigenetic gene silencing is of central importance to maintain genome integrity and is mediated by an elaborate interplay between DNA methylation, histone posttranslational modifications and chromatin remodeling complexes. DNA methylation and repressive histone marks usually correlate with transcriptionally silent heterochromatin, however there are exceptions to this interdependence. In Arabidopsis, mutation of MORPHEUS MOLECULE 1 (MOM1) causes transcriptional derepression of heterochromatin independently of changes in DNA methylation. More recently, two Arabidopsis homologs of mouse Microrchidia (MORC) have also been implicated in gene silencing and heterochromatin condensation without altering genome-wide DNA methylation patterns. In this study, we show that AtMORC6 physically interacts with AtMORC1 and with its close homologue AtMORC2 in two mutually exclusive protein complexes. RNA-seq analysis of high-order mutants indicates that AtMORC1 and AtMORC2 act redundantly to repress a common set of loci. We also examined the genetic interactions between AtMORC6 and MOM1 pathways. Although AtMORC6 and MOM1 control the silencing of a very similar set of genomic loci, we observed synergistic transcriptional regulation in the mom1/atmorc6 double mutant, suggesting that these epigenetic regulators act mainly by independent silencing mechanisms.
ORGANISM(S): Arabidopsis thaliana
PROVIDER: GSE54677 | GEO | 2014/06/01
SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA237334
REPOSITORIES: GEO
ACCESS DATA