The BAF60 Subunit of the SWI/SNF Chromatin-Remodeling Complex Directly Controls the Formation of a Gene Loop at FLOWERING LOCUS C in Arabidopsis

• Published in: The Plant cell Vol. 26; no. 2; pp. 538 - 551
• Main Authors: Jégu, Teddy, Latrasse, David, Delarue, Marianne, Hirt, Heribert, Domenichini, Séverine, Ariel, Federico, Crespi, Martin, Bergounioux, Catherine, Raynaud, Cécile, Benhamed, Moussa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Society of Plant Biologists 01.02.2014; American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB)
• Subjects: Arabidopsis - genetics; Arabidopsis - metabolism; Arabidopsis Proteins - genetics; Arabidopsis Proteins - metabolism; Chromatin; Chromatin - metabolism; Chromatin Assembly and Disassembly; Cold Temperature; Control loops; DNA; Flowering; Flowers - genetics; Flowers - physiology; Gene expression regulation; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Genes; Genes, Plant; Genetic loci; Histones; Histones - metabolism; Life Sciences; MADS Domain Proteins - genetics; MADS Domain Proteins - metabolism; Models, Biological; Nucleic Acid Conformation; Photoperiod; Plants; Protein Processing, Post-Translational; Protein Subunits - metabolism; RNA Interference; RNA Polymerase II - metabolism; Time Factors; Vegetal Biology; Vernalization
• ISSN: 1040-4651; 1532-298X
• DOI: 10.1105/tpc.113.114454

SWI/SNF complexes mediate ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling to regulate gene expression. Many components of these complexes are evolutionarily conserved, and several subunits of Arabidopsis thaliana SWI/SNF complexes are involved in the control of flowering, a process that depends on the floral repressor FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC). BAF60 is a SWI/SNF subunit, and in this work, we show that BAF60, via a direct targeting of the floral repressor FLC, induces a change at the highorder chromatin level and represses the photoperiod flowering pathway in Arabidopsis. BAF60 accumulates in the nucleus and controls the formation of the FLC gene loop by modulation of histone density, composition, and posttranslational modification. Physiological analysis of BAF60 RNA interference mutant lines allowed us to propose that this chromatinremodeling protein creates a repressive chromatin configuration at the FLC locus.