eLife (Apr 2017)
The MBD7 complex promotes expression of methylated transgenes without significantly altering their methylation status
- Dongming Li,
- Ana Marie S Palanca,
- So Youn Won,
- Lei Gao,
- Ying Feng,
- Ajay A Vashisht,
- Li Liu,
- Yuanyuan Zhao,
- Xigang Liu,
- Xiuyun Wu,
- Shaofang Li,
- Brandon Le,
- Yun Ju Kim,
- Guodong Yang,
- Shengben Li,
- Jinyuan Liu,
- James A Wohlschlegel,
- Hongwei Guo,
- Beixin Mo,
- Xuemei Chen,
- Julie A Law
Affiliations
- Dongming Li
- Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, Institute of Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, United States; School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China; State Key Laboratory of Plant Cell and Chromosome Engineering, Hebei Collaboration Innovation Center for Cell Signaling, Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijiazhuang, China
- Ana Marie S Palanca
- ORCiD
- Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States
- So Youn Won
- Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, Institute of Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, United States
- Lei Gao
- Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, Institute of Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, United States; College of Life Sciences and Oceanography, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for Plant Epigenetics, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
- Ying Feng
- Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, Institute of Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, United States; State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene research, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
- Ajay A Vashisht
- Department of Biological Chemistry, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, United States
- Li Liu
- Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, Institute of Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, United States
- Yuanyuan Zhao
- Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, Institute of Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, United States
- Xigang Liu
- Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, Institute of Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, United States; State Key Laboratory of Plant Cell and Chromosome Engineering, Hebei Collaboration Innovation Center for Cell Signaling, Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijiazhuang, China
- Xiuyun Wu
- Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, Institute of Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, United States; Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Protein Science, Laboratory of the Ministry of Education, Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
- Shaofang Li
- Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, Institute of Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, United States
- Brandon Le
- Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, Institute of Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, United States
- Yun Ju Kim
- Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, Institute of Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, United States
- Guodong Yang
- Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, Institute of Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, United States
- Shengben Li
- Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, Institute of Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, United States
- Jinyuan Liu
- Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Protein Science, Laboratory of the Ministry of Education, Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
- James A Wohlschlegel
- Department of Biological Chemistry, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, United States
- Hongwei Guo
- State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene research, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
- Beixin Mo
- College of Life Sciences and Oceanography, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for Plant Epigenetics, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
- Xuemei Chen
- ORCiD
- Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, Institute of Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, United States; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Riverside, United States
- Julie A Law
- ORCiD
- Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.19893
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 6
Abstract
DNA methylation is associated with gene silencing in eukaryotic organisms. Although pathways controlling the establishment, maintenance and removal of DNA methylation are known, relatively little is understood about how DNA methylation influences gene expression. Here we identified a METHYL-CpG-BINDING DOMAIN 7 (MBD7) complex in Arabidopsis thaliana that suppresses the transcriptional silencing of two LUCIFERASE (LUC) reporters via a mechanism that is largely downstream of DNA methylation. Although mutations in components of the MBD7 complex resulted in modest increases in DNA methylation concomitant with decreased LUC expression, we found that these hyper-methylation and gene expression phenotypes can be genetically uncoupled. This finding, along with genome-wide profiling experiments showing minimal changes in DNA methylation upon disruption of the MBD7 complex, places the MBD7 complex amongst a small number of factors acting downstream of DNA methylation. This complex, however, is unique as it functions to suppress, rather than enforce, DNA methylation-mediated gene silencing.
Keywords
- α-crystallin domain (ACD)
- HSP20
- Methyl-CpG-Binding Domain (MBD)
- DNA methylation
- RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM)
- transcriptional gene silencing
