Multiple redundant mechanisms account for the majority of gene silencing downstream of DNA methylation.

ABSTRACT: DNA methylation is a conserved epigenetic modification crucial for silencing genes and transposable elements (TEs). However, the mechanisms that cause silencing remain unclear, partly because methyl reader protein mutants in both plants and animals show minimal transcriptional changes. To explore the possibility of redundancy among these silencing mechanisms, we generated combinatorial mutants of H1.1, H1.2, ADCP1, MOM1, MBD2, MBD5, and MBD6 lacking key methyl readers and related silencing pathways. We observed massive derepression of genes and TEs at DNA-methylated loci, showing that these pathways account for 73% of silencing compared to DNA methylation-free mutants. We also observed that immune response genes were upregulated, causing an imbalance between growth and defense. Loss of dow

SUBMITTER: Wang S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12918867 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature