Arabidopsis FORGETTER1 mediates stress-induced chromatin memory through nucleosome remodeling

Krzysztof Brzezinka, Simone Altmann, Hjördis Czesnick, Philippe Nicolas, Michal Gorka, Eileen Benke, Tina Kabelitz, Felix Jähne, Alexander Graf, Christian Kappel, Isabel Bäurle (Lead / Corresponding author)

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

135 Citations (Scopus)
343 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Plants as sessile organisms can adapt to environmental stress to mitigate its adverse effects. As part of such adaptation they maintain an active memory of heat stress for several days that promotes a more efficient response to recurring stress. We show that this heat stress memory requires the activity of the FORGETTER1 (FGT1) locus, with fgt1 mutants displaying reduced maintenance of heat-induced gene expression. FGT1 encodes the Arabidopsis thaliana orthologue of Strawberry notch (Sno), and the protein globally associates with the promoter regions of actively expressed genes in a heat-dependent fashion. FGT1 interacts with chromatin remodelers of the SWI/SNF and ISWI families, which also display reduced heat stress memory. Genomic targets of the BRM remodeler overlap significantly with FGT1 targets. Accordingly, nucleosome dynamics at loci with altered maintenance of heat-induced expression are affected in fgt1. Together, our results suggest that by modulating nucleosome occupancy, FGT1 mediates stress-induced chromatin memory.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere17061
Pages (from-to)1-23
Number of pages23
JournaleLife
Volume5
Issue numberSeptember
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 28 Sept 2016

Keywords

  • A. thaliana
  • chromatin memory
  • DExD/H helicase
  • heat stress
  • nucleosome remodeling
  • priming

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Neuroscience
  • General Medicine
  • General Immunology and Microbiology
  • General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology

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