Publication Date:
2009-01-31
Description:
DNA methylation is essential for silencing transposable elements and some genes in higher eukaryotes, which suggests that this modification must be tightly controlled. However, accidental changes in DNA methylation can be transmitted through mitosis (as in cancer) or meiosis, leading to epiallelic variation. We demonstrated the existence of an efficient mechanism that protects against transgenerational loss of DNA methylation in Arabidopsis. Remethylation is specific to the subset of heavily methylated repeats that are targeted by the RNA interference (RNAi) machinery. This process does not spread into flanking regions, is usually progressive over several generations, and faithfully restores wild-type methylation over target sequences in an RNAi-dependent manner. Our findings suggest an important role for RNAi in protecting genomes against long-term epigenetic defects.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Teixeira, Felipe Karam -- Heredia, Fabiana -- Sarazin, Alexis -- Roudier, Francois -- Boccara, Martine -- Ciaudo, Constance -- Cruaud, Corinne -- Poulain, Julie -- Berdasco, Maria -- Fraga, Mario F -- Voinnet, Olivier -- Wincker, Patrick -- Esteller, Manel -- Colot, Vincent -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2009 Mar 20;323(5921):1600-4. doi: 10.1126/science.1165313. Epub 2009 Jan 29.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Unite de Recherche en Genomique Vegetale, CNRS UMR 8114, Institut National de la Recherche Argonomique UMR 1165, Universite d'Evry Val d'Essonne, 91057 Evry Cedex, France.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19179494" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Arabidopsis/*genetics/growth & development/metabolism
;
Arabidopsis Proteins/genetics/metabolism
;
Crosses, Genetic
;
*DNA Methylation
;
DNA Transposable Elements
;
DNA, Plant/genetics/metabolism
;
DNA-Binding Proteins/genetics/metabolism
;
Genome, Plant
;
Mutation
;
*RNA Interference
;
RNA Replicase/genetics/metabolism
;
RNA, Plant/genetics/metabolism
;
RNA, Small Interfering/genetics/metabolism
;
Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid
;
Transcription Factors/genetics/metabolism
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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