The Tnt1 retrotransposon escapes silencing in tobacco, its natural host
Hernández-Pinzón, Inmaculada (Centre de Recerca en Agrigenòmica)
Cifuentes, Marta (Centre de Recerca en Agrigenòmica)
Hénaff, Elizabeth (Centre de Recerca en Agrigenòmica)
Santiago, Néstor (Centre de Recerca en Agrigenòmica)
Espinás, M. Lluïsa (Institut de Biologia Molecular de Barcelona)
Casacuberta i Suñer, Josep M. 1962- (Centre de Recerca en Agrigenòmica)

Date:	2012
Abstract:	Retrotransposons' high capacity for mutagenesis is a threat that genomes need to control tightly. Transcriptional gene silencing is a general and highly effective control of retrotransposon expression. Yet, some retrotransposons manage to transpose and proliferate in plant genomes, suggesting that, as shown for plant viruses, retrotransposons can escape silencing. However no evidence of retrotransposon silencing escape has been reported. Here we analyze the silencing control of the tobacco Tnt1 retrotransposon and report that even though constructs driven by the Tnt1 promoter become silenced when stably integrated in tobacco, the endogenous Tnt1 elements remain active. Silencing of Tnt1-containing transgenes correlates with high DNA methylation and the inability to incorporate H2A. Z into their promoters, whereas the endogenous Tnt1 elements remain partially methylated at asymmetrical positions and incorporate H2A. Z upon induction. Our results show that the promoter of Tnt1 is a target of silencing in tobacco, but also that endogenous Tnt1 elements can escape this control and be expressed in their natural host.
Grants:	Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia BFU2006-04005 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación BFU2009-11932 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación BFU2009-1098
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Published in:	PloS one, Vol. 7, Issue 3 (March 2012) , art. e33816, ISSN 1932-6203

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0033816
PMID: 22479451

13 p, 2.2 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > CRAG (Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles