RNAi Promotes Heterochromatic Silencing Through Replication-coupled Release of RNA Pol II

Overview

Journal Nature

Specialty Science

Date 2011 Oct 18

PMID 22002604

Citations 106

Authors

Mikel Zaratiegui

Stephane E Castel

Danielle V Irvine

Anna Kloc

Jie Ren

Fei Li

Elisa de Castro

Laura Marin

An-Yun Chang

Derek Goto

W Zacheus Cande

Francisco Antequera

Benoit Arcangioli

Robert A Martienssen

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Heterochromatin comprises tightly compacted repetitive regions of eukaryotic chromosomes. The inheritance of heterochromatin through mitosis requires RNA interference (RNAi), which guides histone modification during the DNA replication phase of the cell cycle. Here we show that the alternating arrangement of origins of replication and non-coding RNA in pericentromeric heterochromatin results in competition between transcription and replication in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Co-transcriptional RNAi releases RNA polymerase II (Pol II), allowing completion of DNA replication by the leading strand DNA polymerase, and associated histone modifying enzymes that spread heterochromatin with the replication fork. In the absence of RNAi, stalled forks are repaired by homologous recombination without histone modification.

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