Tariq Muhammad, Saze Hidetoshi, Probst Aline V, Lichota Jacek, Habu Yoshiki, Paszkowski Jerzy
Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Maulbeerstrasse 66, CH-4058 Basel, Switzerland.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2003 Jul 22;100(15):8823-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1432939100. Epub 2003 Jul 9.
In mammals and plants, formation of heterochromatin is associated with hypermethylation of DNA at CpG sites and histone H3 methylation at lysine 9. Previous studies have revealed that maintenance of DNA methylation in Neurospora and Arabidopsis requires histone H3 methylation. A feedback loop from DNA methylation to histone methylation, however, is less understood. Its recent examination in Arabidopsis with a partial loss of function in DNA methyltransferase 1 (responsible for maintenance of CpG methylation) yielded conflicting results. Here we report that complete removal of CpG methylation in an Arabidopsis mutant null for DNA maintenance methyltransferase results in a clear loss of histone H3 methylation at lysine 9 in heterochromatin and also at heterochromatic loci that remain transcriptionally silent. Surprisingly, these dramatic alterations are not reflected in heterochromatin relaxation.
在哺乳动物和植物中,异染色质的形成与CpG位点处DNA的高甲基化以及赖氨酸9处组蛋白H3的甲基化有关。先前的研究表明,粗糙脉孢菌和拟南芥中DNA甲基化的维持需要组蛋白H3甲基化。然而,从DNA甲基化到组蛋白甲基化的反馈回路却鲜为人知。最近在拟南芥中对DNA甲基转移酶1(负责维持CpG甲基化)功能部分丧失的研究产生了相互矛盾的结果。在此我们报告,在一个DNA维持甲基转移酶缺失的拟南芥突变体中,CpG甲基化的完全去除导致异染色质中赖氨酸9处组蛋白H3甲基化明显丧失,在那些仍保持转录沉默的异染色质位点也是如此。令人惊讶的是,这些显著变化并未反映在异染色质的松弛上。