Promoter DNA hypermethylation and gene repression in undifferentiated Arabidopsis cells.
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.
Berdasco
María
M
Cancer Epigenetics Laboratory, Molecular Pathology Programme, Spanish National Cancer Centre (CNIO), Madrid, Spain.
Alcázar
Rubén
R
García-Ortiz
María Victoria
MV
Ballestar
Esteban
E
Fernández
Agustín F
AF
Roldán-Arjona
Teresa
T
Tiburcio
Antonio F
AF
Altabella
Teresa
T
Buisine
Nicolas
N
Quesneville
Hadi
H
Baudry
Antoine
A
Lepiniec
Loïc
L
Alaminos
Miguel
M
Rodríguez
Roberto
R
Lloyd
Alan
A
Colot
Vincent
V
Bender
Judith
J
Canal
María Jesús
MJ
Esteller
Manel
M
Fraga
Mario F
MF
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