A discontinuous DNA glycosylase domain in a family of enzymes that excise 5-methylcytosine

DNA cytosine methylation (5-meC) is a widespread epigenetic mark associated to gene silencing. In plants, DEMETER-LIKE (DML) proteins typified by Arabidopsis REPRESSOR OF SILENCING 1 (ROS1) initiate active DNA demethylation by catalyzing 5-meC excision. DML proteins belong to the HhH-GPD superfamily, the largest and most functionally diverse group of DNA glycosylases, but the molecular properties that underlie their capacity to specifically recognize and excise 5-meC are largely unknown. We have found that sequence similarity to HhH-GPD enzymes in DML proteins is actually distributed over two non-contiguous segments connected by a predicted disordered region. We used homology-based modeling to locate candidate residues important for ROS1 function in both segments, and tested our predictions by site-specific mutagenesis. We found that amino acids T606 and D611 are essential for ROS1 DNA glycosylase activity, whereas mutations in either of two aromatic residues (F589 and Y1028) reverse the characteristic ROS1 preference for 5-meC over T. We also found evidence suggesting that ROS1 uses Q607 to flip out 5-meC, while the contiguous N608 residue contributes to sequence-context specificity. In addition to providing novel insights into the molecular basis of 5-meC excision, our results reveal that ROS1 and its DML homologs possess a discontinuous catalytic domain that is unprecedented among known DNA glycosylases

The Progeny of Arabidopsis thaliana Plants Exposed to Salt Exhibit Changes in DNA Methylation, Histone Modifications and Gene Expression

Plants are able to acclimate to new growth conditions on a relatively short time-scale. Recently, we showed that the progeny of plants exposed to various abiotic stresses exhibited changes in genome stability, methylation patterns and stress tolerance. Here, we performed a more detailed analysis of methylation patterns in the progeny of Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) plants exposed to 25 and 75 mM sodium chloride. We found that the majority of gene promoters exhibiting changes in methylation were hypermethylated, and this group was overrepresented by regulators of the chromatin structure. The analysis of DNA methylation at gene bodies showed that hypermethylation in the progeny of stressed plants was primarily due to changes in the 5′ and 3′ ends as well as in exons rather than introns. All but one hypermethylated gene tested had lower gene expression. The analysis of histone modifications in the promoters and coding sequences showed that hypermethylation and lower gene expression correlated with the enrichment of H3K9me2 and depletion of H3K9ac histones. Thus, our work demonstrated a high degree of correlation between changes in DNA methylation, histone modifications and gene expression in the progeny of salt-stressed plants

DEMETER and REPRESSOR OF SILENCING 1 encode 5-methylcytosine DNA glycosylases

Cytosine methylation is an epigenetic mark that promotes gene silencing and plays important roles in development and genome defense against transposons. Methylation patterns are established and maintained by DNA methyltransferases that catalyze transfer of a methyl group from S-adenosyl-l-methionine to cytosine bases in DNA. Erasure of cytosine methylation occurs during development, but the enzymatic basis of active demethylation remains controversial. In Arabidopsis thaliana, DEMETER (DME) activates the maternal expression of two imprinted genes silenced by methylation, and REPRESSOR OF SILENCING 1 (ROS1) is required for release of transcriptional silencing of a hypermethylated transgene. DME and ROS1 encode two closely related DNA glycosylase domain proteins, but it is unknown whether they participate directly in a DNA demethylation process or counteract silencing through an indirect effect on chromatin structure. Here we show that DME and ROS1 catalyze the release of 5-methylcytosine (5-meC) from DNA by a glycosylase/lyase mechanism. Both enzymes also remove thymine, but not uracil, mismatched to guanine. DME and ROS1 show a preference for 5-meC over thymine in the symmetric dinucleotide CpG context, where most plant DNA methylation occurs. Nevertheless, they also have significant activity on both substrates at CpApG and asymmetric sequences, which are additional methylation targets in plant genomes. These findings suggest that a function of ROS1 and DME is to initiate erasure of 5-meC through a base excision repair process and provide strong biochemical evidence for the existence of an active DNA demethylation pathway in plants