Regulation of Heterochromatic Silencing and Histone H3 Lysine-9 Methylation by RNAi

作者：Thomas A. Volpe, Catherine Anne Kidner, Ira M. Hall, Grace Teng, Shiv I. S. Grewal, Robert A. Martienssen · 发表于：Science · 年份：2002 · DOI：10.1126/science.1074973 · 被引用次数：2095 · 研究领域：Plant Virus Research Studies、Plant Disease Resistance and Genetics、Chromosomal and Genetic Variations

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.