RNA-directed DNA Methylation

Abstract

RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) is a biological process in which non-coding RNA molecules direct the addition of DNA methylation to specific DNA sequences. The RdDM pathway is unique to plants, although other mechanisms of RNA-directed chromatin modification have also been described in fungi and animals. To date, the RdDM pathway is best characterized within angiosperms (flowering plants), and particularly within the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. However, conserved RdDM pathway components and associated small RNAs (sRNAs) have also been found in other groups of plants, such as gymnosperms and ferns. The RdDM pathway closely resembles other sRNA pathways, particularly the highly conserved RNAi pathway found in fungi, plants, and animals. Both the RdDM and RNAi pathways produce sRNAs and involve conserved Argonaute, Dicer and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase proteins. RdDM has been implicated in a number of regulatory processes in plants. The DNA methylation added by RdDM is generally associated with transcriptional repression of the genetic sequences targeted by the pathway. Since DNA methylation patterns in plants are heritable, these changes can often be stably transmitted to progeny. As a result, one prominent role of RdDM is the stable, transgenerational suppression of transposable element (TE) activity. RdDM has also been linked to pathogen defense, abiotic stress responses, and the regulation of several key developmental transitions. Although the RdDM pathway has a number of important functions, RdDM-defective mutants in Arabidopsis thaliana are viable and can reproduce, which has enabled detailed genetic studies of the pathway. However, RdDM mutants can have a range of defects in different plant species, including lethality, altered reproductive phenotypes, TE upregulation and genome instability, and increased pathogen sensitivity. Overall, RdDM is an important pathway in plants that regulates a number of processes by establishing and reinforcing specific DNA methylation patterns, which can lead to transgenerational epigenetic effects on gene expression and phenotype.

Fig 1. High level overview of several of the biological functions of RdDM.

Top left: TE silencing by RdDM prevents TE activation and transposition. Without RdDM, active TEs are free to transpose into genes or promoters, which can disrupt gene expression or result in a mutant protein. Top right: RdDM is involved in several aspects of development; for example, RdDM affects flowering time by repressing FWA. In pollen, TEs become activated in a support cell, leading to the production of sRNAs for RdDM that move to the germ cell in order to reinforce TE silencing. Bottom left: sRNAs involved in RdDM are mobile, and can move between cells through plasmodesmata or systemically via the vasculature, so RdDM-mediated silencing can spread from its point of origin to distal tissues. Bottom right: RdDM is involved in several abiotic stress responses including the heat shock response, and can silence TEs that would otherwise become active and transpose under heat stress. RdDM is also involved in pathogen defense, and can silence viral DNA (either as a viral minichromosome, shown, or as an integrated provirus) using sRNAs derived from viral mRNAs.

Fig 2. DNA methylation sequence contexts and related DNA methyltransferases.

DNA methylation at cytosines followed by guanines (CG methylation) is maintained by MET1, while CHG and CHH methylation are maintained by CMT3 and CMT2, respectively. The methyltransferase involved in RdDM, DRM2, can add DNA methylation regardless of sequence context.

Fig 3

Schematic of the canonical RdDM pathway (top), and non-canonical RdDM and RNAi/PTGS (bottom). The canonical RdDM pathway can be broken into (1) sRNA production and (2) targeting DNA methylation to sites of sRNA production. The non-canonical RdDM pathway is closely related to RNAi and other PTGS pathways, and differs from canonical RdDM primarily in the source of sRNAs and sRNA processing. H3K9 = lysine 9 on histone H3; H3K4 = lysine 4 on histone H3; ssRNA = single-stranded RNA; dsRNA = double-stranded RNA, miRNA = microRNA.

Fig 4. A schematic depicting the evolutionary conservation of selected Pol IV and V subunit orthologs within the plant kingdom.

Subunits beginning with NRPD are Pol IV subunits, subunits beginning with NRPE are Pol V subunits, and subunits labeled as NRPD/E are found in both Pol IV and V. [141] A filled circle for a subunit indicates that an ortholog for that subunit has been identified within the associated lineage.

Fig 5. A schematic depicting the evolutionary conservation of selected RdDM pathway component orthologs within the plant kingdom.

A filled circle for a subunit indicates that an ortholog for that subunit has been identified within the associated lineage.