Arabidopsis proteins with a transposon-related domain act in gene silencing.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 28466841.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms15122 and PMC identifier 5418596.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Transposable elements (TEs) are prevalent in most eukaryotes, and host genomes have devised silencing strategies to rein in TE activity. One of these, transcriptional silencing, is generally associated with DNA methylation and short interfering RNAs. Here we show that the Arabidopsis genes MAIL1 and MAIN define an alternative silencing pathway independent of DNA methylation and short interfering RNAs. Mutants for MAIL1 or MAIN exhibit release of silencing and appear to show impaired condensation of pericentromeric heterochromatin. Phylogenetic analysis suggests not only that MAIL1 and MAIN encode a retrotransposon-related plant mobile domain, but also that host plant mobile domains were captured by DNA transposons during plant evolution. Our results reveal a role for Arabidopsis proteins with a transposon-related domain in gene silencing.
Medical subject headings
- Arabidopsis
- Arabidopsis Proteins
- DNA Transposable Elements
- Gene Silencing
- Nuclear Proteins
- Protein Domains
- Retroelements