Project description:RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) plays an essential role in transposable element (TE) silencing in plants. In the Arabidopsis RdDM pathway, the DDR complex containing DRD1, DMS3, and RDM1, is necessary for recruiting Pol V to transcribe scaffold RNA. Although the role of DDR is known, the mechanism by which the DDR complex is regulated remains unexplored. Here, we demonstrate that the Anaphase Promoting Complex/Cyclosome (APC/C) monitors the assembly of the DDR complex by targeting DMS3 for degradation. We show that a subset of Pol V-dependent RdDM loci are de-repressed in apc/c mutants, accompanied by defective recruitment and transcription of Pol V. APC/C targets DMS3 for ubiquitination and degradation in a D box-dependent manner, and the D-box-mutated DMS3 fails to complement the dms3 mutant. Competitive binding assays shows that the dosage of DMS3 is critical for the assembly of the DDR complex, and in vivo gel filtration analysis shows that the assembly of both DDR and Pol V is compromised in the apc8 mutant. These findings uncover a safeguard role of APC/C-mediated DMS3 degradation in the assembly of the DDR complex, and provide a direct link between selective protein degradation and RdDM.
Project description:RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) plays an essential role in transposable element (TE) silencing in plants. In the Arabidopsis RdDM pathway, the DDR complex containing DRD1, DMS3, and RDM1, is necessary for recruiting Pol V to transcribe scaffold RNA. Although the role of DDR is known, the mechanism by which the DDR complex is regulated remains unexplored. Here, we demonstrate that the Anaphase Promoting Complex/Cyclosome (APC/C) monitors the assembly of the DDR complex by targeting DMS3 for degradation. We show that a subset of Pol V-dependent RdDM loci are de-repressed in apc/c mutants, accompanied by defective recruitment and transcription of Pol V. APC/C targets DMS3 for ubiquitination and degradation in a D box-dependent manner, and the D-box-mutated DMS3 fails to complement the dms3 mutant. Competitive binding assays shows that the dosage of DMS3 is critical for the assembly of the DDR complex, and in vivo gel filtration analysis shows that the assembly of both DDR and Pol V is compromised in the apc8 mutant. These findings uncover a safeguard role of APC/C-mediated DMS3 degradation in the assembly of the DDR complex, and provide a direct link between selective protein degradation and RdDM.
Project description:Phages are important drivers of bacterial evolution with therapeutic potential as antimicrobials. However, gaps in our understanding of phages and ability to rapidly engineer them with new genetic cargo hinders progress towards phage-based therapies. To address the lack of unbiased, genome-wide mutational tools for phages, we developed transposon mutagenesis employing CRISPR-anti-CRISPR (Acr)-based selection and deep-sequencing (Phage Tn-seq). Transposon mutagenesis was effective for phages with unmodified or hypermodified genomes and a jumbo phage that protects its DNA within a nucleus. Phage Tn-seq enabled phage gene essentiality assignment consistent with structural proteomics and core gene conservation. Insertion biases allowed prediction of transcriptional direction and early injected phage DNA regions. We exploited the method to rapidly deliver new cargo to phage genomes in just a few days and used an AI-designed Acr to expand the phage transposon toolbox. Phage Tn-seq is versatile tool to advance our understanding and applications of phages.
Project description:This series represents the gene expression study of phages DT1 and 2972 during the whole process of infection. Gene expression was measured at nine time intervals (0, 2, 7, 12, 17, 22, 27, 32, 37 minutes) during phage infection.