Premium
Transduction of RNA‐directed DNA methylation signals to repressive histone marks in Arabidopsis thaliana
Author(s) -
Numa Hisataka,
Kim JongMyong,
Matsui Akihiro,
Kurihara Yukio,
Morosawa Taeko,
Ishida Junko,
Mochizuki Yoshiki,
Kimura Hiroshi,
Shinozaki Kazuo,
Toyoda Tetsuro,
Seki Motoaki,
Yoshikawa Manabu,
Habu Yoshiki
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the embo journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.484
H-Index - 392
eISSN - 1460-2075
pISSN - 0261-4189
DOI - 10.1038/emboj.2009.374
Subject(s) - biology , rna directed dna methylation , dna methylation , histone methylation , histone , genetics , histone h3 , methylation , histone methyltransferase , microbiology and biotechnology , gene , gene expression
RNA‐directed modification of histones is essential for the maintenance of heterochromatin in higher eukaryotes. In plants, cytosine methylation is an additional factor regulating inactive chromatin, but the mechanisms regulating the coexistence of cytosine methylation and repressive histone modification remain obscure. In this study, we analysed the mechanism of gene silencing mediated by MORPHEUS' MOLECULE1 ( MOM1 ) of Arabidopsis thaliana . Transcript profiling revealed that the majority of up‐regulated loci in mom1 carry sequences related to transposons and homologous to the 24‐nt siRNAs accumulated in wild‐type plants that are the hallmarks of RNA‐directed DNA methylation (RdDM). Analysis of a single‐copy gene, SUPPRESSOR OF drm1 drm2 cmt3 ( SDC ), revealed that mom1 activates SDC with concomitant reduction of di‐methylated histone H3 lysine 9 (H3K9me2) at the tandem repeats in the promoter region without changes in siRNA accumulation and cytosine methylation. The reduction of H3K9me2 is not observed in regions flanking the tandem repeats. The results suggest that MOM1 transduces RdDM signals to repressive histone modification in the core region of RdDM.