Horizontal Transfer of a Plant Transposon

The majority of well-documented cases of horizontal transfer between higher eukaryotes involve the movement of transposable elements between animals. Surprisingly, although plant genomes often contain vast numbers of these mobile genetic elements, no evidence of horizontal transfer of a nuclear-encoded transposon between plant species has been detected to date. The most mutagenic known plant transposable element system is the Mutator system in maize. Mu-like elements (MULEs) are widespread among plants, and previous analysis has suggested that the distribution of various subgroups of MULEs is patchy, consistent with horizontal transfer. We have sequenced portions of MULE transposons from a number of species of the genus Setaria and compared them to each other and to publicly available databases. A subset of these elements is remarkably similar to a small family of MULEs in rice. A comparison of noncoding and synonymous sequences revealed that the observed similarity is not due to selection at the amino acid level. Given the amount of time separating Setaria and rice, the degree of similarity between these elements excludes the possibility of simple vertical transmission of this class of MULEs. This is the first well-documented example of horizontal transfer of any nuclear-encoded genes between higher plants

Correlation of LNCR rasiRNAs Expression with Heterochromatin Formation during Development of the Holocentric Insect Spodoptera frugiperda

Repeat-associated small interfering RNAs (rasiRNAs) are derived from various genomic repetitive elements and ensure genomic stability by silencing endogenous transposable elements. Here we describe a novel subset of 46 rasiRNAs named LNCR rasiRNAs due to their homology with one long non-coding RNA (LNCR) of Spodoptera frugiperda. LNCR operates as the intermediate of an unclassified transposable element (TE-LNCR). TE-LNCR is a very invasive transposable element, present in high copy numbers in the S. frugiperda genome. LNCR rasiRNAs are single-stranded RNAs without a prominent nucleotide motif, which are organized in two distinct, strand-specific clusters. The expression of LNCR and LNCR rasiRNAs is developmentally regulated. Formation of heterochromatin in the genomic region where three copies of the TE-LNCR are embedded was followed by chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and we observed this chromatin undergo dynamic changes during development. In summary, increased LNCR expression in certain developmental stages is followed by the appearance of a variety of LNCR rasiRNAs which appears to correlate with subsequent accumulation of a heterochromatic histone mark and silencing of the genomic region with TE-LNCR. These results support the notion that a repeat-associated small interfering RNA pathway is linked to heterochromatin formation and/or maintenance during development to establish repression of the TE-LNCR transposable element. This study provides insights into the rasiRNA silencing pathway and its role in the formation of fluctuating heterochromatin during the development of one holocentric organism

Viroids as a Tool to Study RNA-Directed DNA Methylation in Plants

Viroids are plant pathogenic, circular, non-coding, single-stranded RNAs (ssRNAs). Members of the Pospiviroidae family replicate in the nucleus of plant cells through double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) intermediates, thus triggering the host’s RNA interference (RNAi) machinery. In plants, the two RNAi pillars are Post-Transcriptional Gene Silencing (PTGS) and RNA-directed DNA Methylation (RdDM), and the latter has the potential to trigger Transcriptional Gene Silencing (TGS). Over the last three decades, the employment of viroid-based systems has immensely contributed to our understanding of both of these RNAi facets. In this review, we highlight the role of Pospiviroidae in the discovery of RdDM, expound the gradual elucidation through the years of the diverse array of RdDM’s mechanistic details and propose a revised RdDM model based on the cumulative amount of evidence from viroid and non-viroid systems

Binding of IRE-BP to Its Cognate RNA Sequence

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG-geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich. - This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively

Functional Analysis of Cotton Leaf Curl Kokhran Virus/Cotton Leaf Curl Multan Betasatellite RNA Silencing Suppressors

In South Asia, Cotton leaf curl disease (CLCuD) is caused by a complex of phylogenetically-related begomovirus species and a specific betasatellite, Cotton leaf curl Multan betasatellite (CLCuMuB). The post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) suppression activities of the transcriptional activator protein (TrAP), C4, V2 and βC1 proteins encoded by Cotton leaf curl Kokhran virus (CLCuKoV)/CLCuMuB were assessed in Nicotiana benthamiana. A variable degree of local silencing suppression was observed for each viral protein tested, with V2 protein exhibiting the strongest suppression activity and only the C4 protein preventing the spread of systemic silencing. The CLCuKoV-encoded TrAP, C4, V2 and CLCuMuB-encoded βC1 proteins were expressed in Escherichia coli and purified. TrAP was shown to bind various small and long nucleic acids including single-stranded (ss) and double-stranded (ds) RNA and DNA molecules. C4, V2, and βC1 bound ssDNA and dsDNA with varying affinities. Transgenic expression of C4 under the constitutive 35S Cauliflower mosaic virus promoter and βC1 under a dexamethasone inducible promoter induced severe developmental abnormalities in N. benthamiana. The results indicate that homologous proteins from even quite closely related begomoviruses may differ in their suppressor activity and mechanism of action. The significance of these findings is discussed

An endogene-resembling transgene delays the onset of silencing and limits siRNA accumulation

62013 DAD 1reservedInternationalIn plants, transgenes are generally more sensitive against RNA silencing than endogenes are. In this study, we generated a transgene that structurally mimicks an endogene. It is composed of endogenous promoter, 5'-UTR, introns, 3'-UTR and terminator elements. Our data revealed that, in contrast to a conventional transgene, an endogene-resembling transgene was more stably expressed and poorly processed into small RNAs. In addition, although both constructs triggered methylation of homologous DNA sequences at similar levels, the endogene-resembling transgene exhibited significantly delayed onset of local and systemic silencingrestrictedDadami, E.; Moser, M.; Zwiebel, M.; Krczal, G.; Wassenegger, M.; Dalakouras, A.Dadami, E.; Moser, M.; Zwiebel, M.; Krczal, G.; Wassenegger, M.; Dalakouras, A