Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Tsuchiya, Tokuji
• Eulgem, Thomas

Titel

Mutations in EDM2 selectively affect silencing states of transposons and induce plant developmental plasticity

Ist Teil von

• Scientific reports, 2013-04, Vol.3 (1), p.1701, Article 1701

Ort / Verlag

England: Nature Publishing Group

Erscheinungsjahr

2013

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• We previously reported on the A. thaliana gene EDM2, which is required for several developmental processes and race-specific immunity. Although EDM2 encodes a nuclear protein with features commonly observed in epigenetic factors, its role in chromatin silencing remains unknown. Here we demonstrate that silencing states of several transposons in edm2 mutants are altered. Levels of their transcripts anti-correlate with those of the repressive epigenetic marks H3K27me1, H3K9me2, and DNA-methylation at CHG sites. In addition, double mutant analysis revealed epistasis between EDM2 and the major histone H3K9-methyltransferase gene KRYPTONITE/SUVH4 in the control of H3K9me2 and CHG methylation. Moreover, we found that the expressivity of several mutant edm2 phenotypes exhibits stochastic variation reminiscent of mutants of known epigenetic modifiers. We propose that EDM2 affects the expression of transposons and developmentally important genes by modulating levels of repressive chromatin marks in a locus dependent manner.