Loss of Small-RNA-Directed DNA Methylation in the Plant Cell Cycle Promotes Germline Reprogramming and Somaclonal Variation.

Loss of Small-RNA-Directed DNA Methylation in the Plant Cell Cycle Promotes Germline Reprogramming and Somaclonal Variation. Curr Biol. 2020 Nov 27;: Authors: Borges F, Donoghue MTA, LeBlanc C, Wear EE, Tanurdžić M, Berube B, Brooks A, Thompson WF, Hanley-Bowdoin L, Martienssen RA Abstract 5-methyl cytosine is widespread in plant genomes in both CG and non-CG contexts. During replication, hemi-methylation on parental DNA strands guides symmetric CG methylation on nascent strands, but non-CG methylation requires modified histones and small RNA guides. Here, we used immortalized Arabidopsis cell suspensions to sort replicating nuclei and determine genome-wide cytosine methylation dynamics during the plant cell cycle. We find that symmetric mCG and mCHG are selectively retained in actively dividing cells in culture, whereas mCHH is depleted. mCG becomes transiently asymmetric during S phase but is rapidly restored in G2, whereas mCHG remains asymmetric throughout the cell cycle. Hundreds of loci gain ectopic CHG methylation, as well as 24-nt small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and histone H3 lysine dimethylation (H3K9me2), without gaining CHH methylation. This suggests that spontaneous epialleles that arise in plant cell cultures are stably maintained by siRNA and H3K9me2 independent of the canonical RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) pathway. In contrast, loci that fail to produce siRNA may be targeted for demethylation when the cell cy...
Source: Current Biology - Category: Biology Authors: Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: research