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PMID: 16957776 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Silencing by plant Polycomb-group genes requires dispersed trimethylation of histone H3 at lysine 27.

The EMBO journal ·Vol. 25 ·No. 19 ·2006-10-04 ·Pages 4638-49

Schubert D, Primavesi L, Bishopp A, Roberts G, Doonan J, Jenuwein T, Goodrich J

Abstract

The plant Polycomb-group (Pc-G) protein CURLY LEAF (CLF) is required to repress targets such as AGAMOUS (AG) and SHOOTMERISTEMLESS (STM). Using chromatin immunoprecipitation, we identify AG and STM as direct targets for CLF and show that they carry a characteristic epigenetic signature of dispersed histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) and localised H3K27me2 methylation. H3K27 methylation is present throughout leaf development and consistent with this, CLF is required persistently to silence AG. However, CLF is not itself an epigenetic mark as it is lost during mitosis. We suggest a model in which Pc-G proteins are recruited to localised regions of targets and then mediate dispersed H3K27me3. Analysis of transgenes carrying AG regulatory sequences confirms that H3K27me3 can spread to novel sequences in a CLF-dependent manner and further shows that H3K27me3 methylation is not sufficient for silencing of targets. We suggest that the spread of H3K27me3 contributes to the mitotic heritability of Pc-G silencing, and that the loss of silencing caused by transposon insertions at plant Pc-G targets reflects impaired spreading.

MeSH Terms
AGAMOUS Protein, Arabidopsis/metabolism Alleles Amino Acid Sequence Arabidopsis/metabolism Arabidopsis Proteins/chemistry,metabolism Carrier Proteins/metabolism Cell Nucleus/metabolism Cold Temperature DNA-Binding Proteins Gene Silencing Genes, Plant/genetics Histones/metabolism Homeodomain Proteins/chemistry,metabolism Lysine/metabolism MADS Domain Proteins/metabolism Methylation Mitosis Models, Genetic Molecular Sequence Data Nuclear Proteins/metabolism Plant Leaves/cytology Plant Roots/cytology Point Mutation/genetics Polycomb-Group Proteins Protein Structure, Tertiary Repressor Proteins/genetics Transgenes
Chemicals
AGAMOUS Protein, Arabidopsis Arabidopsis Proteins CURLY LEAF protein, Arabidopsis Carrier Proteins DNA-Binding Proteins FLF protein, Arabidopsis Histones Homeodomain Proteins MADS Domain Proteins Nuclear Proteins Polycomb-Group Proteins Repressor Proteins STM protein, Arabidopsis VRN2 protein, Arabidopsis Lysine
Authors & Affiliations
7 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Schubert Daniel
Institute for Molecular Plant Sciences, School of Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Primavesi Lucia
Bishopp Anthony
Roberts Gethin
Doonan John
Jenuwein Thomas
Goodrich Justin
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Article Info
Journal
The EMBO journal
Abbr.
EMBO J
ISSN
0261-4189
DOI
10.1038/sj.emboj.7601311
Published
2006-10-04
Epub
2006-00-07
Pages
4638-49
Language
English
Region
England
NLM ID
8208664
PMCID
PMC1590001
Subset
IM
Grants
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council · BBS/E/J/00000129 · United Kingdom
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council · G20266 · United Kingdom
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1038/sj.emboj.7601311 PMC Full Text View journal details
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