Maternal histone methyltransferases antagonistically regulate autosomal random monoallelic expression (aRMAE) in C. elegans.

ABSTRACT: Undefined epigenetic programs act to probabilistically silence individual autosomal alleles, generating unique individuals, even from genetic clones. This random monoallelic expression can explain variation in traits and diseases that differences in genes and environments cannot. Here, we developed the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to study monoallelic expression in whole tissues, and defined a developmental genetic regulation pathway. We found maternal H3K9 histone methyltransferase (HMT) SET-25/SUV39/G9a works with HPL-2/HP1 and LIN-61/L3MBTL2 to randomly silence alleles in the intestinal progenitor E-cell of 8-cell embryos to cause monoallelic expression. SET-25 was antagonized by another maternal H3K9 HMT, MET-2/SETDB1, which works with LIN-65/ATF7IP and ARLE-14/ARL14EP to prevent mo

SUBMITTER: Sands B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12753696 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature