Project description:The Arabidopsis DEMETER (DME) DNA glycosylase demethylates the maternal genome in the central cell prior to fertilization, and is essential for seed viability. DME preferentially targets small transposons that flank coding genes, influencing their expression and initiating plant gene imprinting. DME also targets intergenic and heterochromatic regions, and how it is recruited to these differing chromatin landscapes is unknown. The C-terminal DME catalytic core consists of three conserved regions required for catalysis in vitro. We show that the catalytic core of DME guides active demethylation at endogenous targets, rescuing the developmental and genomic hypermethylation phenotypes of DME mutants. However, without the N-terminus, heterochromatin demethylation is significantly impeded, and abundant CG-methylated genic sequences are ectopically demethylated. We used comparative analysis to reveal that the conserved DME N-terminal domains are only present in the flowering plants, whereas the domain architecture of DME-like proteins in non-vascular plants mainly resembles the catalytic core, suggesting that it might represent the ancestral form of the 5mC DNA glycosylase found in all plant lineages. We propose a bipartite model for DME protein action and suggest that the DME N-terminus was acquired late during land plant evolution to improve specificity and facilitate demethylation at heterochromatin targets.
Project description:The Arabidopsis thaliana central cell, the companion cell of the egg, undergoes DNA demethylation prior to fertilization, but the targeting preferences and biological significance of this process remain unclear. Here, we show that active DNA demethylation mediated by the DEMETER DNA glycosylase accounts for all of the demethylation in the central cell, and preferentially targets small, AT-rich and nucleosome-depleted transposable elements. The vegetative cell, the companion cell of sperm, also undergoes DEMETER-dependent demethylation of similar sequences, and lack of DEMETER in vegetative cells causes reduced small RNA-directed DNA methylation of transposons in sperm. Our results demonstrate that demethylation in companion cells reinforces transposon methylation in plant gametes, thereby assuring stable silencing of transposable elements across generations Examination of DNA methylation in Arabidopsis endosperm, embryo, and pollen
Project description:The Arabidopsis thaliana central cell, the companion cell of the egg, undergoes DNA demethylation prior to fertilization, but the targeting preferences and biological significance of this process remain unclear. Here, we show that active DNA demethylation mediated by the DEMETER DNA glycosylase accounts for all of the demethylation in the central cell, and preferentially targets small, AT-rich and nucleosome-depleted transposable elements. The vegetative cell, the companion cell of sperm, also undergoes DEMETER-dependent demethylation of similar sequences, and lack of DEMETER in vegetative cells causes reduced small RNA-directed DNA methylation of transposons in sperm. Our results demonstrate that demethylation in companion cells reinforces transposon methylation in plant gametes, thereby assuring stable silencing of transposable elements across generations
Project description:Surveillance of DNA methylation in mammals is critical for genome stability and epigenetic regulation. The discovery of the ten-eleven translocation (TET) proteins catalyzing the oxidation from 5-methylcytosine (5mC) to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), 5-formylcytosine (5fC), and 5-carboxylcytosine (5caC) revolutionized the understanding of DNA methylation dynamics. Interestingly, in recent years evidence accumulated that TET1 also harbours non-catalytic functions. However, the role and mechanism of TET1 DNA demethylation independent functions still remain poorly understood. Here, we use genome engineering and quantitative multi-omics approaches to dissect the non-catalytic role of TET1. Strikingly, we find that the majority of transcriptional regulation depends on non-catalytic functions of TET1. To gain insights into possible mechanisms by which TET1 regulates transcription independent of DNA demethylation, we asked if the loss of TET1 is accompanied by changes in the histone modificaiton landscape. To this end, we compared the relative abundances of core histone modifications between Tet1 KO, Tet1 CM and WT mESCs using quantitative LC-MS/MS analysis. Surprisingly, we observed a profound global reduction of pH4Kac and H4K20me3 as well as H3K27me3 in Tet1 KO mESC. Vice versa, the monomethylation states of the latter two residues, H3K27me1 and H4K20me1 were significantly increased in Tet1 KO. Similar to the results from the transcriptome data, most of these changes were specific to Tet1 KO cells.
Project description:Parent-of-origin-specific (imprinted) gene expression is regulated in Arabidopsis thaliana endosperm by cytosine demethylation of the maternal genome mediated by the DNA glycosylase DEMETER, but the extent of the methylation changes is not known. Here we show that virtually the entire endosperm genome is demethylated, coupled with extensive local non-CG hypermethylation of siRNA-targeted sequences. Mutation of DEMETER partially restores endosperm CG methylation to levels found in other tissues, indicating that CG demethylation is specific to maternal sequences. Endosperm demethylation is accompanied by CHH hypermethylation of embryo transposable elements. Our findings demonstrate extensive reconfiguration of the endosperm methylation landscape that likely reinforces transposon silencing in the embryo. Keywords: Epigenetics; bisulfite sequencing Examination of DNA methylation in four Arabidopsis tissues Description of processed data and raw data file contents can be found in the attached README.txt file
Project description:Parent-of-origin-specific (imprinted) gene expression is regulated in Arabidopsis thaliana endosperm by cytosine demethylation of the maternal genome mediated by the DNA glycosylase DEMETER, but the extent of the methylation changes is not known. Here we show that virtually the entire endosperm genome is demethylated, coupled with extensive local non-CG hypermethylation of siRNA-targeted sequences. Mutation of DEMETER partially restores endosperm CG methylation to levels found in other tissues, indicating that CG demethylation is specific to maternal sequences. Endosperm demethylation is accompanied by CHH hypermethylation of embryo transposable elements. Our findings demonstrate extensive reconfiguration of the endosperm methylation landscape that likely reinforces transposon silencing in the embryo. Keywords: Epigenetics; bisulfite sequencing
Project description:The DNA methylation program is at the bottom layer of the epigenetic regulatory cascade of vertebrate development. While the methylation at C-5 position of the cytosine (C) residues on the vertebrate genomes is achieved through the catalytic activities of the DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs), the conversion of the methylated cytosine (5mC) could be accomplished by the combined actions of the TET enzyme and DNA repair. Interestingly, it has been found recently that the mouse and human DNMTs also possess active DNA demethylation activity in vitro in a Ca2+- and redox condition-dependent manner. We report here the study of tracking down the fate of the methyl group removed from 5mC on DNA during in vitro demethylation reaction by mouse de novo DNMTs, i.e. DNMT3A and DNMT3B. Remarkably, the methyl group becomes covalently linked to the catalytic cysteines utilized by the two de novo DNMTs in their DNA methylation reactions. Thus, the forward and reverse reactions of DNA methylations by the DNMTs may utilize the same cysteine residue(s) as the active site despite of their distinctive pathways. Secondly, we demonstrate that active DNA demethylation of a heavily methylated GFP reporter plasmid by ectopically expressed DNMT3A or DNMT3B occurs in vivo in transfected human HEK 293 cells in culture. Furthermore, the extent of DNA demethylation by the DNMTs in this cell-based system is affected by Ca2+ homeostasis as well as by mutation of their putative active cysteines. These findings substantiate the roles of the vertebrate DNMTs as double-edged swords in DNA methylation-demethylation in vitro as well as in a cellular context.