title: The methyl-CpG-binding protein MBD7 facilitates active DNA demethylation to limit DNA hyper-methylation and transcriptional gene silencing.
abstract: DNA methylation is a conserved epigenetic mark that plays important roles in plant and vertebrate development, genome stability, and gene regulation. Canonical Methyl-CpG-binding domain (MBD) proteins are important interpreters of DNA methylation that recognize methylated CG sites and recruit chromatin remodelers, histone deacetylases, and histone methyltransferases to repress transcription. Here, we show that Arabidopsis MBD7 and Increased DNA Methylation 3 (IDM3) are anti-silencing factors that prevent gene repression and DNA hypermethylation. MBD7 preferentially binds to highly methylated, CG-dense regions and physically associates with other anti-silencing factors, including the histone acetyltransferase IDM1 and the alpha-crystallin domain proteins IDM2 and IDM3. IDM1 and IDM2 were previously shown to facilitate active DNA demethylation by the 5-methylcytosine DNA glycosylase/lyase ROS1. Thus, MBD7 tethers the IDM proteins to methylated DNA, which enables the function of DNA demethylases that in turn limit DNA methylation and prevent transcriptional gene silencing.
authors: Shanghai Center for Plant Stress Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China; Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA.
authors: Zhaobo
authors: Z
authors: Lang
authors: Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA.
authors: Mingguang
authors: M
authors: Lei
authors: Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA.
authors: Xingang
authors: X
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA.
authors: Kai
authors: K
authors: Tang
authors: Shanghai Center for Plant Stress Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China.
authors: Daisuke
authors: D
authors: Miki
authors: Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA.
authors: Huiming
authors: H
authors: Zhang
authors: Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA; Biotechnology Section, Directorate of Rice Research, Hyderabad 500030, India.
authors: Satendra K
authors: SK
authors: Mangrauthia
authors: Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA; School of Life Sciences, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China.
authors: Wenshan
authors: W
authors: Liu
authors: Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA; Department of Horticulture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors: Wenfeng
authors: W
authors: Nie
authors: Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA.
authors: Guojie
authors: G
authors: Ma
authors: Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA.
authors: Jun
authors: J
authors: Yan
authors: Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA.
authors: Cheng-Guo
authors: CG
authors: Duan
authors: Department of Biochemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
authors: Chuan-Chih
authors: CC
authors: Hsu
authors: State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, College of Biological Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
authors: Chunlei
authors: C
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Biochemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
authors: W Andy
authors: WA
authors: Tao
authors: State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, College of Biological Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
authors: Zhizhong
authors: Z
authors: Gong
authors: Shanghai Center for Plant Stress Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China; Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA. Electronic address: jkzhu@purdue.edu.
authors: Jian-Kang
authors: JK
authors: Zhu
mesh_terms: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D001665:Binding Sites; D019175:DNA Methylation; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D020868:Gene Silencing; D051548:Histone Acetyltransferases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D009154:Mutation; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; C000592316:IDM2 protein, Arabidopsis; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; C471271:ROS1 protein, Arabidopsis; C525054:MBD7 protein, Arabidopsis; D051548:Histone Acetyltransferases; C573241:IDM1 protein, Arabidopsis