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IDN1 and IDN2 are required for de novo DNA methylation in Arabidopsis thaliana

Abstract

DNA methylation is an epigenetic mark affecting genes and transposons. Screening for mutants that fail to establish DNA methylation yielded two we termed “involved in de novo” (idn) 1 and 2. IDN1 encodes DMS3, an SMC-related protein, and IDN2 encodes a previously unknown double-stranded RNA–binding protein with homology to SGS3. IDN1 and IDN2 control de novo methylation and small interfering RNA (siRNA)-mediated maintenance methylation and are components of the RNA-directed DNA methylation pathway.

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Figure 1: De novo methylation phenotype of idn mutants.
Figure 2: Maintenance methylation phenotype of idn mutants.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. Goodrich and D. Schubert for kindly providing T-DNA homozygous lines. We thank members of the Jacobsen laboratory for supportive discussions. Jacobsen lab research was supported by US National Institutes of Health grant GM60398. I.A. was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia. S.E.J. and J.C. are investigators of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

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Contributions

T.C.M. and J.C. provided the majority of the insertion mutagenized population. I.A. and S.E.J. designed the experiments. I.A. performed the experiments and wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Steven E Jacobsen.

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Supplementary Figures 1–3, Supplementary Tables 1 and 2 and Supplementary Methods (PDF 170 kb)

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Ausin, I., Mockler, T., Chory, J. et al. IDN1 and IDN2 are required for de novo DNA methylation in Arabidopsis thaliana. Nat Struct Mol Biol 16, 1325–1327 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.1690

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