TY - JOUR
T1 - Regulation of heterochromatic silencing and histone H3 lysine-9 methylation by RNAi
AU - Volpe, Thomas A.
AU - Kidner, Catherine
AU - Hall, Ira M.
AU - Teng, Grace
AU - Grewal, Shiv I.S.
AU - Martienssen, Robert A.
PY - 2002/9/13
Y1 - 2002/9/13
N2 - Eukaryotic heterochromatin is characterized by a high density of repeats and transposons, as well as by modified histones, and influences both gene expression and chromosome segregation. In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, we deleted the argonaute, dicer, and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene homologs, which encode part of the machinery responsible for RNA interference (RNAi). Deletion results in the aberrant accumulation of complementary transcripts from centromeric heterochromatic repeats. This is accompanied by transcriptional de-repression of transgenes integrated at the centromere, loss of histone H3 lysine-9 methylation, and impairment of centromere function. We propose that double-stranded RNA arising from centromeric repeats targets formation and maintenance of heterochromatin through RNAi.
AB - Eukaryotic heterochromatin is characterized by a high density of repeats and transposons, as well as by modified histones, and influences both gene expression and chromosome segregation. In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, we deleted the argonaute, dicer, and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene homologs, which encode part of the machinery responsible for RNA interference (RNAi). Deletion results in the aberrant accumulation of complementary transcripts from centromeric heterochromatic repeats. This is accompanied by transcriptional de-repression of transgenes integrated at the centromere, loss of histone H3 lysine-9 methylation, and impairment of centromere function. We propose that double-stranded RNA arising from centromeric repeats targets formation and maintenance of heterochromatin through RNAi.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0037072661&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1126/science.1074973
DO - 10.1126/science.1074973
M3 - Article
C2 - 12193640
AN - SCOPUS:0037072661
SN - 0036-8075
VL - 297
SP - 1833
EP - 1837
JO - Science
JF - Science
IS - 5588
ER -