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A methylated‐DNA‐binding complex required for plant development mediates transcriptional activation of promoter methylated genes
Author(s) -
Zhao QiangQiang,
Lin RongNan,
Li Lin,
Chen She,
He XinJian
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of integrative plant biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.734
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1744-7909
pISSN - 1672-9072
DOI - 10.1111/jipb.12767
Subject(s) - gene , dna , dna methylation , methylated dna immunoprecipitation , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , promoter , genetics , chemistry , computational biology , gene expression
Abstract Although the mechanism of DNA methylation‐mediated gene silencing is extensively studied, relatively little is known about how promoter methylated genes are protected from transcriptional silencing. SUVH1, an Arabidopsis Su(var)3‐9 homolog, was previously shown to be required for the expression of a few promoter methylated genes. By chromatin immunoprecipitation combined with sequencing, we demonstrate that SUVH1 binds to methylated genomic loci targeted by RNA‐directed DNA methylation. SUVH1 and its homolog SUVH3 function partially redundantly and interact with three DNAJ domain‐containing homologs, SDJ1, SDJ2, and SDJ3, thus forming a complex which we named SUVH‐SDJ. The SUVH‐SDJ complex components are co‐localized in a large number of methylated promoters and are required for the expression of a subset of promoter methylated genes. We demonstrate that the SUVH‐SDJ complex components have transcriptional activation activity. SUVH1 and SUVH3 function synergistically with SDJ1, SDJ2, and SDJ3 and are required for plant viability. This study reveals how the SUVH‐SDJ complex protects promoter methylated genes from transcriptional silencing and suggests that the transcriptional activation of promoter methylated genes mediated by the SUVH‐SDJ complex may play a critical role in plant growth and development.