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Updated: Mar 28, 2026

Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Assay for the Identification of Arabidopsis Protein-DNA Interactions In Vivo
Published on: January 14, 2016
Epigenetic Regulation of Vegetative Phase Change in Arabidopsis
Mingli Xu1, Tieqiang Hu1, Michael R Smith1
1Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104.
Abstract:
Vegetative phase change in flowering plants is regulated by a decrease in the level of miR156. The molecular mechanism of this temporally regulated decrease in miR156 expression is still unknown. Most of the miR156 in Arabidopsis thaliana shoots is produced by MIR156A and MIR156C. We found that the downregulation of these genes during vegetative phase change is associated with an increase in their level of histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) and requires this chromatin modification. The increase in H3K27me3 at MIR156A/MIR156C is associated with an increase in the binding of PRC2 to these genes and is mediated redundantly by the E(z) homologs SWINGER and CURLY LEAF. The CHD3 chromatin remodeler PICKLE (PKL) promotes the addition of H3K27me3 to MIR156A/MIR156C but is not responsible for the temporal increase in this chromatin mark. PKL is bound to the promoters of MIR156A/MIR156C, where it promotes low levels of H3K27ac early in shoot development and stabilizes the nucleosome at the +1 position. These results suggest a molecular mechanism for the initiation and maintenance of vegetative phase change in plants.
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Transcription
Transcription is the process of synthesizing RNA from a DNA sequence by RNA polymerase. It is the first step in producing a protein from a gene sequence. Additionally, many other proteins and regulatory sequences are involved in the proper synthesis of messenger RNA (mRNA). Regulation of transcription is responsible for the differentiation of all the different types of cells and often for the proper cellular response to environmental signals.
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