MBD2 couples DNA methylation to transposable element silencing during male gametogenesis

Shuya Wang, Ming Wang, Lucia Ichino, Brandon A. Boone, Zhenhui Zhong, Ranjith K. Papareddy, Evan K. Lin, Jaewon Yun, Suhua Feng, Steven E. Jacobsen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

DNA methylation is an essential component of transposable element (TE) silencing, yet the mechanism by which methylation causes transcriptional repression remains poorly understood1–5. Here we study the Arabidopsis thaliana Methyl-CpG Binding Domain (MBD) proteins MBD1, MBD2 and MBD4 and show that MBD2 acts as a TE repressor during male gametogenesis. MBD2 bound chromatin regions containing high levels of CG methylation, and MBD2 was capable of silencing the FWA gene when tethered to its promoter. MBD2 loss caused activation at a small subset of TEs in the vegetative cell of mature pollen without affecting DNA methylation levels, demonstrating that MBD2-mediated silencing acts strictly downstream of DNA methylation. TE activation in mbd2 became more significant in the mbd5 mbd6 and adcp1 mutant backgrounds, suggesting that MBD2 acts redundantly with other silencing pathways to repress TEs. Overall, our study identifies MBD2 as a methyl reader that acts downstream of DNA methylation to silence TEs during male gametogenesis.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)13-24
Number of pages12
JournalNature Plants
Volume10
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2024
Externally publishedYes

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