Transposable elements are vectors of recurrent transgenerational epigenetic inheritance

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Baduel, Pierre; De Oliveira, Louna; Caillieux, Erwann; Bohl-Viallefond, Gregoire; Xu, Ciana; El Messaoudi, Mounia; Petit, Aurelien; Drai, Maeva; Barois, Matteo; Singh, Vipin; Sarazin, Alexis; Teixeira, Felipe K.; Boccara, Martine; Gilbault, Elodie; de France, Antoine; Quadrana, Leandro; Loudet, Olivier; Colot, Vincent
• 署名单位: Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale (Inserm); Universite PSL; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS); CNRS - National Institute for Biology (INSB); Universite Paris Saclay; INRAE; AgroParisTech; Austrian Academy of Sciences; Vienna Biocenter (VBC); Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology (GMI); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Universite de Lille; CNRS - Institute of Ecology & Environment (INEE); Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; ETH Zurich; University of Cambridge; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Sorbonne Universite; Universite PSL; Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle (MNHN); Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE); Universite Paris Saclay; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Universite Paris Cite
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.ady3475
• 发表日期: 2025-11-13
• 页码: eady3475
• 关键词: directed dna methylation; arabidopsis-thaliana; gene; PARAMUTATION; alignment; scale; association; expression; requires; DYNAMICS

摘要

DNA methylation loss at transposable elements (TEs) can affect neighboring genes and be epigenetically inherited in plants, yet the determinants and importance of this additional system of inheritance are unknown. In this work, we demonstrate in Arabidopsis thaliana that transgenerational stability of experimentally induced hypomethylation at TE loci is constrained by small RNAs derived from related copies. Using data from more than 700 strains collected worldwide, we uncover similar and recurrent hypomethylation at hundreds of these TE loci, often near genes. Most natural epivariants that we tested can be inherited without DNA sequence changes and are therefore bona fide epialleles, although genetic factors modulate their recurrence or persistence. Epiallelic variants often cause gene expression changes and may be targets of selection, revealing their contribution to heritable phenotypic variation in nature.