The 30th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research (ICAR 2019)

759 / 2019-05-30 15:03:53

Transcriptional activation by small RNAs in plants

Transcriptional activation

Epigenetic Regulation > Epigenetic Regulation

Conventional RNA interference (RNAi) pathways suppress eukaryotic gene expression at the post-transcriptional or transcriptional level. At the core of RNAi are small RNAs (sRNAs) and effector Argonaute (AGO) proteins. In plants, AGO1 binds microRNAs (miRNAs) to post-transcriptionally repress target genes, while AGO4 binds 24-nt siRNAs to direct DNA methylation and transcriptional repression. In this talk, I will present our unexpected findings that Arabidopsis AGO1 binds to the chromatin of active genes and promotes their transcription and discuss how the role of AGO1 in gene activation contributes to the regulation of diverse signaling pathways and associated biological processes. I will also present our findings that 24-nt siRNA-directed DNA methylation promotes gene transcription and regulates agronomically important traits in rice.