Köhler Claudia, Page Damian R, Gagliardini Valeria, Grossniklaus Ueli
Institute of Plant Biology & Zürich-Basel Plant Science Center, University of Zürich, Zollikerstrasse 107, CH-8008 Zürich, Switzerland.
Nat Genet. 2005 Jan;37(1):28-30. doi: 10.1038/ng1495. Epub 2004 Dec 26.
The maternally expressed Arabidopsis thaliana Polycomb group protein MEDEA (MEA) controls expression of the MADS-box gene PHERES1 (PHE1). Here, we show that PHE1 is mainly paternally expressed but maternally repressed and that this maternal repression of PHE1 breaks down in seeds lacking maternal MEA activity. Because Polycomb group proteins control parental imprinting in mammals as well, the independent recruitment of similar protein machineries for the imprinting of genes is a notable example of convergent evolution.
母本表达的拟南芥多梳蛋白家族蛋白MEA（MEA）控制MADS盒基因PHERES1（PHE1）的表达。在此，我们表明PHE1主要由父本表达，但受母本抑制，并且在缺乏母本MEA活性的种子中，这种对PHE1的母本抑制作用会消失。由于多梳蛋白家族蛋白在哺乳动物中也控制亲本印记，因此独立募集相似的蛋白质机制来进行基因印记是趋同进化的一个显著例子。
