Zygophyllum dumosum Boiss. is a perennial Saharo-Arabian phytogeographical element and a dominant shrub on the rocky limestone southeast-facing slopes of the Negev desert. The plant is highly active during the winter, and semideciduous during the dry summer, i.e., it sheds its leaflets, while leaving the thick, fleshy petiole green and rather active during the dry season. Being resistant to extreme perennial drought, Z. dumosum appears to provide an intriguing model plant for studying epigenetic mechanisms associated with drought tolerance in natural habitats. The transition from the wet to the dry season was accompanied by a significant decrease in nuclear size and with posttranslational modifications of histone H3 N-terminal tail. Dimethylation of H3 at lysine 4 (H3K4)--a modification associated with active gene expression--was found to be high during the wet season but gradually diminished on progression to the dry season. Unexpectedly, H3K9 di- and trimethylation as well as H3K27 di- and trimethylation could not be detected in Z. dumosum; H3K9 monomethylation appears to be prominent in Z. dumosum during the wet but not during the dry season. Contrary to Z. dumosum, H3K9 dimethylation was detected in other desert plants, including Artemisia sieberi, Anabasis articulata and Haloxylon scoparium. Taken together, our results demonstrate dynamic genome organization and unique pattern of histone H3 methylation displayed by Z. dumosum, which could have an adaptive value in variable environments of the Negev desert.
Three methyl-CpG-binding domain (MBD) proteins in Arabidopsis, AtMBD5, AtMBD6, and AtMBD7, are functional in binding methylated CpG dinucleotides in vitro and localize to the highly CpG-methylated chromocenters in vivo. These proteins differ, however, in their subnuclear localization pattern; AtMBD5 and AtMBD6, each containing a single MBD motif, show preference for two perinucleolar chromocenters, whereas AtMBD7, a naturally occurring poly-MBD protein containing three MBD motifs, localizes to all chromocenters. Here we studied the significance of multiple MBD motifs for subnuclear localization and mobility in living cells. We found that the number of MBD motifs determines the subnuclear localization of the MBD protein. Furthermore, live kinetic experiments showed that AtMBD7-green fluorescent protein (GFP) has lower mobility than AtMBD5-GFP and AtMBD6-GFP, which is conferred by cooperative activity of its three MBD motifs. Thus, the number of MBD motifs appears to affect not only binding affinity and mobility within the nucleus, but also the subnuclear localization of the protein. Our results suggest that poly-MBD proteins can directly affect chromatin structure by inducing intra-and interchromatin compaction via bridging over multiple methylated CpG sites.Cytosine methylation is a common epigenetic modification of most eukaryotic nuclear DNA. Intensive studies demonstrated the central role played by cytosine methylation in genome organization, gene expression, and growth and development. The way by which the methyl group is interpreted into a functional state has begun to be unraveled with the isolation and characterization of methylated DNA-binding proteins. This group of proteins includes an evolutionary conserved protein family, initially described in animals, termed methyl-CpGbinding domain (MBD) 2 proteins (1). Biochemical and molecular analyses suggest that mammalian MBDs induce the formation of a repressive chromatin structure at methylated CpG (mCpG) sites by the recruitment of various chromatin factors including histone deacetylases, histone methyltransferases, and ATPase-dependent nucleosome remodeling factors (2, 3). Thus far, of the 13 AtMBD proteins found in Arabidopsis, only AtMBD5, AtMBD6, and AtMBD7 were found to bind mCpG sites in vitro and to localize in vivo to the highly methylated chromocenters (ChCs) (reviewed in Refs. 4 and 5). This chromocenter localization is CpG methylation-dependent inasmuch as it was disrupted in the hypomethylated mutants ddm1 and met1 (6). Yet, these three AtMBDs display different localization patterns within Arabidopsis nuclei; AtMBD7 is predominantly localized at all ChCs, whereas AtMBD5 and AtMBD6 show preference for two perinucleolar ChCs adjacent to the ribosomal DNA clusters (6). A major structural feature distinguishing AtMBD7 from AtMBD5 and AtMBD6 is the presence of three MBD motifs within its protein sequence. Notably, naturally occurring poly-MBD proteins appear to be unique to plants as to date no such protein has been found in animals. Here we studied...
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