School of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721.
Biology Department, Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia 30314.
Plant Physiol. 2018 May;177(1):285-299. doi: 10.1104/pp.17.00534. Epub 2018 Mar 9.
Early endosperm development presents a unique system in which to uncover epigenetic regulatory mechanisms because the contributing maternal and paternal genomes possess differential epigenetic modifications. In Arabidopsis (), the initiation of endosperm coenocytic growth upon fertilization and the transition to endosperm cellularization are regulated by the FERTILIZATION-INDEPENDENT SEED (FIS)-Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2), a putative H3K27 methyltransferase. Here, we address the possible role of the FIS-PRC2 complex in regulating the type I MADS-box gene family, which has been shown previously to regulate early endosperm development. We show that a subclass of type I MADS-box genes (C2 genes) was expressed in distinct domains of the coenocytic endosperm in wild-type seeds. Furthermore, the C2 genes were mostly up-regulated biallelically during the extended coenocytic phase of endosperm development in the FIS-PRC2 mutant background. Using allele-specific expression analysis, we also identified a small subset of C2 genes subjected to FIS-PRC2-dependent maternal or FIS-PRC2-independent paternal imprinting. Our data support a dual role for the FIS-PRC2 complex in the regulation of C2 type I MADS-box genes, as evidenced by a generalized role in the repression of gene expression at both alleles associated with endosperm cellularization and a specialized role in silencing the maternal allele of imprinted genes.
早期胚乳发育提供了一个独特的系统,可用于揭示表观遗传调控机制,因为贡献的母体和父体基因组具有不同的表观遗传修饰。在拟南芥(Arabidopsis)中,受精后胚乳合胞体生长的启动和向胚乳细胞化的转变受受精独立种子(FERTILIZATION-INDEPENDENT SEED,FIS)-多梳抑制复合物 2(Polycomb Repressive Complex 2,PRC2)的调控,FIS-PRC2 是一种假定的 H3K27 甲基转移酶。在这里,我们探讨了 FIS-PRC2 复合物在调节 I 型 MADS 盒基因家族中的可能作用,该基因家族先前已被证明可调节早期胚乳发育。我们表明,I 型 MADS 盒基因的一个亚类(C2 基因)在野生型种子的合胞体胚乳的不同区域表达。此外,在 FIS-PRC2 突变体背景下,胚乳合胞体延长阶段,C2 基因在两个等位基因上都被双等位基因上调。通过等位基因特异性表达分析,我们还鉴定了一小部分 C2 基因受到 FIS-PRC2 依赖性母源或 FIS-PRC2 非依赖性父源印迹的影响。我们的数据支持 FIS-PRC2 复合物在 C2 型 I 型 MADS 盒基因调控中的双重作用,证据是它在与胚乳细胞化相关的两个等位基因上的基因表达普遍抑制以及在印迹基因的母源等位基因沉默中的特殊作用。