Small interfering RNAs that trigger posttranscriptional gene silencing are not required for the histone H3 Lys9 methylation necessary for transgenic tandem repeat stabilization in Neurospora crassa.

ABSTRACT: In Neurospora crassa, the introduction of a transgene can lead to small interfering RNA (siRNA)-mediated posttranscriptional gene silencing (PTGS) of homologous genes. siRNAs can also guide locus-specific methylation of Lys9 of histone H3 (Lys9H3) in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Here we tested the hypothesis that transgenically derived siRNAs may contemporaneously both activate the PTGS mechanism and induce chromatin modifications at the transgene and the homologous endogenous gene. We carried out chromatin immunoprecipitation using a previously characterized albino-1 (al-1) silenced strain but detected no alterations in the pattern of histone modifications at the endogenous al-1 locus, suggesting that siRNAs produced from the transgenic locus do not trigger modifications in trans of those h

SUBMITTER: Chicas A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1084287 | biostudies-literature | 2005 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature