Dependence of Heterochromatic Histone H3 Methylation Patterns on the Arabidopsis Gene DDM1

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, suggest...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2002-09, Vol.297 (5588), p.1871-1873
Main Authors: Gendrel, Anne-Valérie, Lippman, Zachary, Yordan, Cristy, Colot, Vincent, Martienssen, Robert A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amino Acid Sequence
Analysis
Animals
Antibodies
Arabidopsis - genetics
Arabidopsis - metabolism
Arabidopsis Proteins - chemistry
Arabidopsis Proteins - genetics
Arabidopsis Proteins - metabolism
Biological and medical sciences
Cellular Biology
Chromatin
Chromatin. Chromosome
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
DNA Methylation
DNA Transposable Elements
DNA, Plant - metabolism
DNA-Binding Proteins - genetics
DNA-Binding Proteins - physiology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gene Expression
Gene Expression Profiling
Gene Silencing
Genes
Genes, Plant
Genetic regulation
Heterochromatin
Heterochromatin - metabolism
Histones
Histones - chemistry
Histones - metabolism
Humans
Life Sciences
Lysine - metabolism
Methylation
Molecular and cellular biology
Molecular genetics
Molecular Sequence Data
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
RNA
Seedlings
Sequence Alignment
Transcription Factors - genetics
Transcription Factors - physiology
Transposons
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1074950