Rea M, Zheng W, Chen M, Braud C, Bhangu D, Rognan TN, Xiao W

Imprinting, parent-of-origin expression of alleles, plays an important role in regulating development in mammals and plants. DNA methylation catalyzed by DNA methyltransferases plays a pivotal role in regulating imprinting by silencing parental alleles. DEMETER (DME), a DNA glycosylase functioning in the base-excision DNA repair pathway, can excise 5-methylcytosine from DNA ...

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and regulate genomic imprinting in Arabidopsis. DME demethylates the maternal MEDEA (MEA) promoter in endosperm, thus resulting in expression of the maternal MEA allele. However, it is not known whether DME interacts with other proteins in regulating gene imprinting. Here we report the identification of histone H1.2 as a DME-interacting protein in a yeast two-hybrid screen and confirmation of their interaction by the in vitro pull-down assay. Genetic analysis of the loss-of-function histone h1 mutant shows that the maternal histone H1 allele is required for DME regulation of the MEA, FWA, and FIS2 imprinting in Arabidopsis endosperm while the paternal allele is dispensable. Furthermore, we show that mutations in histone H1 result in an increase of DNA methylation in the maternal MEA and FWA promoter in endosperm. Our results suggest that histone H1 is involved in the DME-mediated DNA methylation and gene regulation at imprinted loci. © 2012 The Authors. The Plant Journal © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Date: Apr. 20, 2012

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