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Targeted de novo promoter methylation for gene silencing is maintained in the next generation of a transgenic tobacco plant

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Abstract

Homology-dependent gene silencing (HDGS) is a resistance mechanism against homologous transgene introduction or virus infection in various organisms. In plants in particular, HDGS phenomena in homologous DNA or RNA sequences can cause gene silencing. In this study, GUS-silenced transgenic lines were developed by agroinfiltration with the i35S binary vector for inducing targeted de novo CaMV 35S promoter methylation. Agroinfiltration with i35S triggered inheritable de novo methylation of the CaMV 35S promoter and CAAT box region by HDGS. Moreover, targeted de novo CaMV 35S promoter methylation appeared to be controlled by the expression of SUVH9, which is involved in endogenous DNA methylation and hyper-methylation of the introduced promoter. In summary, this study demonstrated that targeted de novo CaMV 35S promoter methylation may be subjected to an HDGS mechanism that can downregulate gene expression and maintain the heritable stability of the methylated promoter.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was carried out with the support of the “Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science and Technology Development (Project No. PJ01365201)”, Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.

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  1. Department of Horticultural Biotechnology, Kyung Hee University, 1732 Deogyeong-daero, Giheung-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea

    Gi-Ho Lee & Young-Doo Park

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  1. Gi-Ho Lee
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  2. Young-Doo Park
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G-HL performed the majority of the experiments and data analysis. Y-DP designed the experiments and analyzed data. G-HL and Y-DP wrote manuscript.

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Correspondence to Young-Doo Park.

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Communicated by Sung-Chur Sim.

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Lee, GH., Park, YD. Targeted de novo promoter methylation for gene silencing is maintained in the next generation of a transgenic tobacco plant. Hortic. Environ. Biotechnol. 61, 291–303 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13580-019-00205-w

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