Dependence of heterochromatic histone H3 methylation patterns on the Arabidopsis gene DDM1

Gendrel, A. V., Lippman, Z., Yordan, C., Colot, V., Martienssen, R. A. (September 2002) Dependence of heterochromatic histone H3 methylation patterns on the Arabidopsis gene DDM1. Science, 297 (5588). pp. 1871-1873. ISSN 0036-8075

URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12077425
DOI: 10.1126/science.1074950

Abstract

The Arabidopsis gene DDM1 is required to maintain DNA methylation levels and is responsible for transposon and transgene silencing. However, rather than encoding a DNA methyltransferase, DDM1 has similarity to the SWI/SNF family of adenosine triphosphate dependent chromatin remodeling genes, suggesting an indirect role in DNA methylation. Here we show that DDM1 is also required to maintain histone H3 methylation patterns. In wild-type heterochromatin, transposons and silent genes are associated with histone H3 methylated at lysine 9, whereas known genes are preferentially associated with methylated lysine 4. In ddm1 heterochromatin, DNA methylation is lost, and methylation of lysine 9 is largely replaced by methylation of lysine 4. Because DNA methylation has recently been shown to depend on histone H3 lysine 9 methylation, our results suggest that transposon methylation may be guided by histone H3 methylation in plant genomes. This would account for the epigenetic inheritance of hypomethylated DNA once histone H3 methylation patterns are altered.

Item Type: Paper
Uncontrolled Keywords: dna methylation chromosomal-proteins a-thaliana chromatin swi/snf genome retrotransposons mobilization maintenance transposons
Subjects: organism description > plant > Arabidopsis
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > DNA, RNA structure, function, modification > DNA methylation
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > DNA, RNA structure, function, modification
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > DNA, RNA structure, function, modification > Chromatin dynamics > heterochromatin
organism description > plant
CSHL Authors:
Communities: CSHL labs > Martienssen lab
School of Biological Sciences > Publications
Depositing User: Matt Covey
Date: September 2002
Date Deposited: 13 Dec 2013 16:02
Last Modified: 19 Sep 2014 14:00
Related URLs:
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/28974

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