Critical Roles of DNA Demethylation in the Activation of Ripening-induced Genes and Inhibition of Ripening-repressed Genes in Tomato Fruit

Overview

Journal Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Specialty Science

Date 2017 May 17

PMID 28507144

Citations 179

Authors

Zhaobo Lang

Yihai Wang

Kai Tang

Dengguo Tang

Tatsiana Datsenka

Jingfei Cheng

Yijing Zhang

Avtar K Handa

Jian-Kang Zhu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

DNA methylation is a conserved epigenetic mark important for genome integrity, development, and environmental responses in plants and mammals. Active DNA demethylation in plants is initiated by a family of 5-mC DNA glycosylases/lyases (i.e., DNA demethylases). Recent reports suggested a role of active DNA demethylation in fruit ripening in tomato. In this study, we generated loss-of-function mutant alleles of a tomato gene, , which is a close homolog of the DNA demethylase gene In the fruits of the tomato mutants, increased DNA methylation was found in thousands of genes. These genes included not only hundreds of ripening-induced genes but also many ripening-repressed genes. Our results show that is critical for tomato fruit ripening and suggest that active DNA demethylation is required for both the activation of ripening-induced genes and the inhibition of ripening-repressed genes.

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