Abstract
Tandem repeats are prone to epigenetic silencing regulated by RNA interference. This may be because siRNAs from tandem array transcripts are regenerated by RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) and Dicer, but siRNAs from single-copy sequences are exhausted by sequential use of downstream primers by RdRP. This could account for the formation of heterochromatin from tandem repeats.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Pontecorvo, G. Nature 3882, 365–367 (1944).
McClintock, B. Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol. 16, 13–47 (1951).
Dorer, D.R. & Henikoff, S. Cell 77, 993–1002 (1994).
Selker, E.U. Adv. Genet. 46, 439–450 (2002).
Cogoni, C. & Macino, G. Nature 399, 166–169 (1999).
Mourrain, P. et al. Cell 101, 533–542 (2000).
Ketting, R.F. & Plasterk, R.H. Nature 404, 296–298 (2000).
Matzke, M., Matzke, A. & Kooter, J. Science 293, 1080–1083 (2001).
Sijen, T. et al. Cell 107, 465–476 (2001).
Volpe, T. et al. Science 297, 1833–1837 (2002).
Reinhart, B.J. & Bartel, D.P. Science 297, 1831 (2002).
Ayoub, N., Goldshmidt, I., Lyakhovetsky, R. & Cohen, A. Genetics. 156, 983–994 (2000).
Hall, I.M. et al. Science 297, 2232–2237 (2002).
Baum, M., Ngan, V.K. & Clarke, L. Mol. Biol. Cell 5, 747–761 (1994).
Volpe, T. et al. Chromosome Res. 11, 137–146 (2003).
Hall, I.M., Noma, K. & Grewal, S.I. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100, 193–198 (2003).
Lipardi, C., Wei, Q. & Paterson, B.M. Cell 107, 297–307 (2001).
Watson, J.D. Nat. New Biol. 239, 197–201 (1972).
Acknowledgements
I thank V. Colot and T. Volpe for encouragement and comments.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The author declares no competing financial interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Martienssen, R. Maintenance of heterochromatin by RNA interference of tandem repeats. Nat Genet 35, 213–214 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1252
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1252
This article is cited by
-
RETRACTED ARTICLE: T1 transgenic tobacco plants carrying multicopy T-DNAs at the same locus exhibit various expression levels of transgenes
Plant Biotechnology Reports (2023)
-
Transposons and satellite DNA: on the origin of the major satellite DNA family in the Chenopodium genome
Mobile DNA (2020)
-
Heterochromatin evolution in Arachis investigated through genome-wide analysis of repetitive DNA
Planta (2019)
-
Mapping of Hieracium (Asteraceae) chromosomes with genus-specific satDNA elements derived from next-generation sequencing data
Plant Systematics and Evolution (2018)
-
Paramutation and related phenomena in diverse species
Nature Reviews Genetics (2017)
