title: SUVR2 is involved in transcriptional gene silencing by associating with SNF2-related chromatin-remodeling proteins in Arabidopsis.
abstract: The SU(VAR)3-9-like histone methyltransferases usually catalyze repressive histone H3K9 methylation and are involved in transcriptional gene silencing in eukaryotic organisms. We identified a putative SU(VAR)3-9-like histone methyltransferase SUVR2 by a forward genetic screen and demonstrated that it is involved in transcriptional gene silencing at genomic loci targeted by RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM). We found that SUVR2 has no histone methyltransferase activity and the conserved catalytic sites of SUVR2 are dispensable for the function of SUVR2 in transcriptional silencing. SUVR2 forms a complex with its close homolog SUVR1 and associate with three previously uncharacterized SNF2-related chromatin-remodeling proteins CHR19, CHR27, and CHR28. SUVR2 was previously thought to be a component in the RdDM pathway. We demonstrated that SUVR2 contributes to transcriptional gene silencing not only at a subset of RdDM target loci but also at many RdDM-independent target loci. Our study suggests that the involvement of SUVR2 in transcriptional gene silencing is related to nucleosome positioning mediated by its associated chromatin-remodeling proteins.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing 102206, China.
authors.forename: Yong-Feng
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing 102206, China.
authors.forename: Kun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dou
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing 102206, China.
authors.forename: Ze-Yang
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing 102206, China.
authors.forename: Su-Wei
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing 102206, China.
authors.forename: Huan-Wei
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing 102206, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing 102206, China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing 102206, China.
authors.forename: She
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA [2] Shanghai Center for Plant Stress Biology and Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China.
authors.forename: Jian-Kang
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing 102206, China.
authors.forename: Xin-Jian
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: He
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D019175:DNA Methylation; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D020868:Gene Silencing; D056426:Genetic Loci; D006657:Histones / Q000378:metabolism; D015533:Transcriptional Activation
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D006657:Histones; C515571:SUVR1 protein, Arabidopsis; C515572:SUVR2 protein, Arabidopsis