Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering, Department of
Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications
Accessibility Remediation
If you are unable to use this item in its current form due to accessibility barriers, you may request remediation through our remediation request form.
Methylation patterns of histone H3 Lys 4, Lys 9 and Lys 27 in transcriptionally active and inactive Arabidopsis genes and in atx1 mutants
Document Type Article
Abstract
Covalent modifications of histone-tail amino acid residues communicate information via a specific ‘histone code’. Here, we report histone H3-tail lysine methylation profiles of several Arabidopsis genes in correlation with their transcriptional activity and the input of the epigenetic factor ARABIDOPSIS HOMOLOGOF TRITHORAX (ATX1) at ATX1-regulated loci. By chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays, we compared modification patterns of a constitutively expressed housekeeping gene, of a tissue-specific gene, and among genes that differed in degrees of transcriptional activity. Our results suggest that the di-methylated isoform of histone H3-lysine4 (m2K4/H3) provide a general mark for gene-related sequences distinguishing them from non-transcribed regions. Lys-4 (K4/H3), lys-9 (K9/ H3) and lys-27 (K27/H3) nucleosome methylation patterns of plant genes may be gene-, tissue- or development-regulated. Absence of nucleosomes from the LTP-promotor was not sufficient to provoke robust transcription in mutant atx1-leaf chromatin, suggesting that the mechanism repositioning nucleosomes at transition to flowering functioned independently of ATX1.