Mutation of Arabidopsis SMC4 identifies condensin as a corepressor of pericentromeric transposons and conditionally expressed genes.

ABSTRACT: In eukaryotes, transcriptionally inactive loci are enriched within highly condensed heterochromatin. In plants, as in mammals, the DNA of heterochromatin is densely methylated and wrapped by histones displaying a characteristic subset of post-translational modifications. Growing evidence indicates that these chromatin modifications are not sufficient for silencing. Instead, they are prerequisites for further assembly of higher-order chromatin structures that are refractory to transcription but not fully understood. We show that silencing of transposons in the pericentromeric heterochromatin of Arabidopsis thaliana requires SMC4, a core subunit of condensins I and II, acting in conjunction with CG methylation by MET1 (DNA METHYLTRANSFERASE 1), CHG methylation by CMT3 (CHROMOMETHYLASE

SUBMITTER: Wang J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5630024 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature