Repression of meiotic genes by antisense transcription and by Fkh2 transcription factor in Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

ABSTRACT: In S. pombe, about 5% of genes are meiosis-specific and accumulate little or no mRNA during vegetative growth. Here we use Affymetrix tiling arrays to characterize transcripts in vegetative and meiotic cells. In vegetative cells, many meiotic genes, especially those induced in mid-meiosis, have abundant antisense transcripts. Disruption of the antisense transcription of three of these mid-meiotic genes allowed vegetative sense transcription. These results suggest that antisense transcription represses sense transcription of meiotic genes in vegetative cells. Although the mechanism(s) of antisense mediated transcription repression need to be further explored, our data indicates that RNAi machinery is not required for repression. Previously, we and others used non-strand specific methods to

SUBMITTER: Chen HM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3253116 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature