Nature Communications<\/em> on 11 January 2022 and identifies the CLSY genes as major factors underlying epigenetic diversity in plant tissues.<\/p>\nJulie Law, senior author and associate professor in Salk\u2019s Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory explained: \u201cThere have been many observations that one cell or tissue type has a different DNA methylation pattern than another, but how the methylation pathways are modulated to end up with different outcomes in different tissues has remained poorly understood.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found that which\u00a0CLSYs are expressed in a given tissue is the mechanism controlling how the core DNA methylation machinery is directed to different genomic locations in different tissues.\u201d<\/p>\n
DNA methylation<\/h3>\n This study of DNA methylation falls under the field of epigenetics, which are molecular modifications that change how the DNA functions without changing the DNA sequence itself. It is considered both a necessary process and a dangerous one. This is because, while it helps to establish cell identity in a developing embryo, it can also cause cancer later in life. In plants, defects in DNA methylation can cause developmental defects and negatively impact crop yields.<\/p>\n
DNA methylation is regulated by many factors, including certain types of small RNAs. Working with the model plant\u00a0Arabidopsis thaliana<\/em>, the Salk team discovered that the CLASSY gene family (CLSY\u00a01\u20134) acts at different locations within the genome, depending on the tissue. This reveals that diverse patterns of methylation are generated during plant development.<\/p>\nThis current study is an expansion on a previous study conducted by Law and her team; they found that in\u00a0Arabidopsis<\/em>, the\u00a0CLSY\u00a0<\/em>genes determine which sites in the genome are methylated, via small RNAs. The present study addresses the larger question of whether this process can result in different methylation patterns in different\u00a0Arabidopsis<\/em>\u00a0tissues, such as the leaf, flower bud, ovule, and rosette.<\/p>\nThe team of researchers found that\u00a0the CLSY\u00a0<\/em>genes were expressed differently depending on the plant tissue type. For example, all four\u00a0of the CLSY\u00a0genes were expressed in flower buds, while\u00a0the CLSY3\u00a0was strongly expressed in ovules and\u00a0the CLSY1\u00a0<\/em>was expressed in leaf and rosette tissues.<\/p>\nThe researchers then compared plants with mutant\u00a0CLSY\u00a0genes against wild-type plants. They found that depending on the tissue, different combinations of\u00a0CLSY\u00a0<\/em>family members, or even individual CLSY proteins, controlled small RNA and DNA methylation patterns at thousands of sites throughout the genome. These findings demonstrate the\u00a0CLSY\u00a0genes\u2019 role in shaping the tissues\u2019 epigenetic landscape.<\/p>\nThe team\u2019s discoveries may open the door to advances in many areas, from boosting crop yields in plants to informing precision medicine in humans. \u201cBefore knowing how a diversity of DNA methylation patterns was generated during development, we didn\u2019t have the ability to manipulate that system. Finding that the CLSY\u2019s control methylation in a tissue-specific manner represents a major advance as it provides scientists a way to alter DNA methylation patterns with much higher precision,\u201d concluded Law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Researchers from Salk Institute for Biological Studies (SIBS) have discovered that the CLASSY gene family regulates which parts of the genome are turned off in a tissue-specific manner. What is a genome? A genome is responsible for what parts of each cell is working at any given time, and the parts of the genome that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":16897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[766,24429],"tags":[550,3475,768],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Genome turned off in CLASSY gene diversifies epigenomes<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n