Combinations of maternal-specific repressive epigenetic marks in the endosperm control seed dormancy.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34427186.
- Also identified by DOI 10.7554/eLife.64593 and PMC identifier 8456740.
- 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
Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2)-mediated trimethylation of histone H3 on lysine 27 (H3K27me3) and methylation of histone 3 on lysine 9 (H3K9me) are two repressive epigenetic modifications that are typically localized in distinct regions of the genome. For reasons unknown, however, they co-occur in some organisms and special tissue types. In this study, we show that maternal alleles marked by H3K27me3 in the <i>Arabidopsis</i> endosperm were targeted by the H3K27me3 demethylase REF6 and became activated during germination. In contrast, maternal alleles marked by H3K27me3, H3K9me2, and CHG methylation (CHGm) are likely to be protected from REF6 targeting and remained silenced. Our study unveils that combinations of different repressive epigenetic modifications time a key adaptive trait by modulating access of REF6.
Medical subject headings
- Arabidopsis
- Endosperm
- Epigenesis, Genetic
- Plant Dormancy