Project description:In plants, transposons and non-protein-coding repeats are epigenetically silenced by CG and non-CG methylation. This pattern of methylation is mediated in part by small RNAs and two specialized RNA polymerases, Pol IV and Pol V, in a process called RNA-directed DNA methylation. By contrast, many protein-coding genes transcribed by Pol II contain in their gene bodies exclusively CG methylation that is independent of small RNAs and Pol IV/Pol V activities. It is unclear how the different methylation machineries distinguish between transposons and genes. Here we report on a group of atypical genes that display in their coding region a transposon-like methylation pattern, which is associated with gene silencing in sporophytic tissues.
Project description:DNA methylation is an important epigenetic modification involved in many biological processes, and active DNA demethylation plays critical roles in regulating expression of genes and anti-silencing of transgenes. In this study, we isolated mutations in one arabidopsis gene, ROS5, which causes the silencing of transgenic 35S-NPTII because of DNA hypermethylation, but no effect on transgenic RD29A-LUC. ROS5 encodes an atypical small heat shock protein. ROS5 can physically interact with IDM1 and is required for preventing DNA hypermethylation of some endogenous genes that are also regualated by IDM1 and ROS1. We propose that ROS5 may regulate active DNA demethylation by interacting with IDM1, thereby creating a friendly chromatin environment that facilitates the binding of ROS1 to erase DNA methylation.
Project description:Parallel RNA silencing pathways regulate gene expression in plants, either by transcriptional gene silencing via RNA-dependent DNA methylation (RdDM), or by post-transcriptional silencing targeting mRNAs. Both pathways rely on distinct Dicer-like proteins to cleave double-stranded RNA into small-interfering RNAs. Experiments to determine the subcellular localization of Dicer-like proteins in Arabidopsis revealed that DCL4 is predominantly expressed as a transcriptional start site isoform that encodes a cytoplasmic protein. A second, longer DCL4 transcript isoform encodes a nuclear-localization signal and its expression is repressed by DNA methylation. Consequently this isoform is induced when promoter methylation decreases due to infection with a bacterial pathogen or during silique development. Nuclear DCL4 produces unique populations of small RNAs, called DCL4NLS isoform-dependent siRNAs (disiRNAs), which function via a post-transcriptional silencing effector, but whose precursors are generated by the RdDM pathway. Arabidopsis cells can thus respond to genome methylation changes by modulating DCL4 localization, which in turn recruits PTGS factors to reinforce RNA silencing.