Research article2010Peer reviewedOpen access
Small Silencing RNAs in Plants Are Mobile and Direct Epigenetic Modification in Recipient Cells
Molnar, Attila; Melnyk, Charles W.; Bassett, Andrew; Hardcastle, Thomas J.; Dunn, Ruth; Baulcombe, David C.
Abstract
A silencing signal in plants with an RNA specificity determinant moves through plasmodesmata and the phloem. To identify the mobile RNA, we grafted Arabidopsis thaliana shoots to roots that would be a recipient for the silencing signal. Using mutants that block small RNA (sRNA) biogenesis in either source or recipient tissue, we found that transgene-derived sRNA as well as a substantial proportion of the endogenous sRNA had moved across the graft union, and we provide evidence that 24-nucleotide mobile sRNAs direct epigenetic modifications in the genome of the recipient cells. Mobile sRNA thus represents a mechanism for transmitting the specification of epigenetic modification and could affect genome defense and responses to external stimuli that have persistent effects in plants.
Published in
Science
2010, Volume: 328, number: 5980, pages: 872-875
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science ({AAAS})
UKÄ Subject classification
Genetics
Publication identifier
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1187959
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/84657