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Updated: Jun 18, 2026

In Vitro Selection of Engineered Transcriptional Repressors for Targeted Epigenetic Silencing
Published on: May 5, 2023
MOM1 and Pol-IV/V interactions regulate the intensity and specificity of transcriptional gene silencing
Chotika Yokthongwattana1, Etienne Bucher, Marian Caikovski
1Department of Plant Biology, University of Geneva, Sciences III, Geneva, Switzerland.
Abstract:
It is commonly observed that onset or release of transcriptional gene silencing (TGS) correlates with alteration of repressive epigenetic marks. The TGS regulator MOM1 in Arabidopsis is exceptional since it regulates transcription in intermediate heterochromatin with only minor changes in epigenetic marks. We have isolated an enhancer of the mom1 mutation that points towards regulatory interplay between MOM1 and RNA polymerase-V (Pol-V). Pol-V transcribes heterochromatic loci, which seems to be required for maintenance of their silencing; however, it is still not clear how Pol-V is targeted to heterochromatin. We now provide evidence that Pol-V is required for MOM1-mediated suppression of transcription at a subset of its chromosomal targets. Thus, Pol-V genetically interacts with MOM1 in the control of gene silencing. Interestingly, functional cooperation of MOM1 and Pol-V not only broadens the range of the controlled loci in comparison to each individual factor, but also determines the degree of TGS.
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