Epigenetic activation of meiotic recombination near Arabidopsis thaliana centromeres via loss of H3K9me2 and non-CG DNA methylation

Underwood, C. J., Choi, K., Lambing, C., Zhao, X., Serra, H., Borges, F., Simorowski, J., Ernst, E., Jacob, Y., Henderson, I. R., Martienssen, R. A. (April 2018) Epigenetic activation of meiotic recombination near Arabidopsis thaliana centromeres via loss of H3K9me2 and non-CG DNA methylation. Genome Res, 28 (4). pp. 519-531. ISSN 1088-9051

URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29530927
DOI: 10.1101/gr.227116.117

Abstract

Eukaryotic centromeres contain the kinetochore, which connects chromosomes to the spindle allowing segregation. During meiosis, centromeres are suppressed for inter-homolog crossover, as recombination in these regions can cause chromosome missegregation and aneuploidy. Plant centromeres are surrounded by transposon-dense pericentromeric heterochromatin that is epigenetically silenced by histone 3 lysine 9 dimethylation (H3K9me2), and DNA methylation in CG and non-CG sequence contexts. However, the role of these chromatin modifications in control of meiotic recombination in the pericentromeres is not fully understood. Here, we show that disruption of Arabidopsis thaliana H3K9me2 and non-CG DNA methylation pathways, for example, via mutation of the H3K9 methyltransferase genes KYP/SUVH4SUVH5 SUVH6, or the CHG DNA methyltransferase gene CMT3, increases meiotic recombination in proximity to the centromeres. Using immunocytological detection of MLH1 foci and genotyping by sequencing of recombinant plants, we observe that H3K9me2 and non-CG DNA methylation pathway mutants show increased pericentromeric crossovers. Increased pericentromeric recombination in H3K9me2/non-CG mutants occurs in hybrid and inbred backgrounds and likely involves contributions from both the interfering and noninterfering crossover repair pathways. We also show that meiotic DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) increase in H3K9me2/non-CG mutants within the pericentromeres, via purification and sequencing of SPO11-1-oligonucleotides. Therefore, H3K9me2 and non-CG DNA methylation exert a repressive effect on both meiotic DSB and crossover formation in plant pericentromeric heterochromatin. Our results may account for selection of enhancer trap Dissociation (Ds) transposons into the CMT3 gene by recombination with proximal transposon launch-pads.

Item Type: Paper
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 > chromosome > centromere
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > DNA, RNA structure, function, modification > chromosomes, structure and function > chromosome > centromere
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > epigenetics
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > DNA, RNA structure, function, modification > epigenetics
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > organelles, types and functions > meiosis
CSHL Authors:
Communities: CSHL labs > Martienssen lab
School of Biological Sciences > Publications
Depositing User: Matt Covey
Date: April 2018
Date Deposited: 16 Mar 2018 19:07
Last Modified: 24 Apr 2018 20:14
PMCID: PMC5880242
Related URLs:
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/36279

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