title: Promoter DNA hypermethylation and gene repression in undifferentiated Arabidopsis cells.
abstract: Maintaining and acquiring the pluripotent cell state in plants is critical to tissue regeneration and vegetative multiplication. Histone-based epigenetic mechanisms are important for regulating this undifferentiated state. Here we report the use of genetic and pharmacological experimental approaches to show that Arabidopsis cell suspensions and calluses specifically repress some genes as a result of promoter DNA hypermethylation. We found that promoters of the MAPK12, GSTU10 and BXL1 genes become hypermethylated in callus cells and that hypermethylation also affects the TTG1, GSTF5, SUVH8, fimbrin and CCD7 genes in cell suspensions. Promoter hypermethylation in undifferentiated cells was associated with histone hypoacetylation and primarily occurred at CpG sites. Accordingly, we found that the process specifically depends on MET1 and DRM2 methyltransferases, as demonstrated with DNA methyltransferase mutants. Our results suggest that promoter DNA methylation may be another important epigenetic mechanism for the establishment and/or maintenance of the undifferentiated state in plant cells.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Epigenetics Laboratory, Molecular Pathology Programme, Spanish National Cancer Centre (CNIO), Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: María
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Berdasco
authors.forename: Rubén
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Alcázar
authors.forename: María Victoria
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: García-Ortiz
authors.forename: Esteban
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ballestar
authors.forename: Agustín F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Fernández
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Roldán-Arjona
authors.forename: Antonio F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Tiburcio
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Altabella
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Buisine
authors.forename: Hadi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Quesneville
authors.forename: Antoine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Baudry
authors.forename: Loïc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lepiniec
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alaminos
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lloyd
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Colot
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bender
authors.forename: María Jesús
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Canal
authors.forename: Manel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Esteller
authors.forename: Mario F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Fraga
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D047369:Chromatin Immunoprecipitation; D019175:DNA Methylation; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D017343:Genes, Plant; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014158:Transcription, Genetic