title: Targeting Argonaute to chromatin.
abstract: In many eukaryotes, siRNAs bound to Argonaute proteins guide chromatin-modifying enzymes to complementary loci, resulting in transcriptional gene silencing. Multiple lines of evidence indicate that siRNAs base-pair with longer RNAs produced at target loci, but the possibility that siRNAs base-pair directly with DNA remains an attractive hypothesis. In a recent study, Shimada et al. (pp. 2571-2580) conducted experiments that address these alternative hypotheses, yielding additional evidence that fission yeast siRNA-Argonaute silencing complexes are recruited to target loci exclusively via interactions with nascent transcripts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA.
authors.forename: Jered M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Wendte
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA.|Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA.|Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA.
authors.forename: Craig S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Pikaard
mesh_terms: D060565:Argonaute Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D002843:Chromatin; D006570:Heterochromatin; D034622:RNA Interference; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering / Q000235:genetics; D012568:Schizosaccharomyces / Q000235:genetics; D029702:Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D060565:Argonaute Proteins; D002843:Chromatin; D006570:Heterochromatin; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering; D029702:Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins
keywords: RNAi; epigenetics; heterochromatin; nascent transcript; noncoding RNA