Small RNA-Directed Epigenetic Natural Variation in Arabidopsis thaliana

Abstract

Progress in epigenetics has revealed mechanisms that can heritably regulate gene function independent of genetic alterations. Nevertheless, little is known about the role of epigenetics in evolution. This is due in part to scant data on epigenetic variation among natural populations. In plants, small interfering RNA (siRNA) is involved in both the initiation and maintenance of gene silencing by directing DNA methylation and/or histone methylation. Here, we report that, in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, a cluster of ∼24 nt siRNAs found at high levels in the ecotype Landsberg erecta (Ler) could direct DNA methylation and heterochromatinization at a hAT element adjacent to the promoter of FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC), a major repressor of flowering, whereas the same hAT element in ecotype Columbia (Col) with almost identical DNA sequence, generates a set of low abundance siRNAs that do not direct these activities. We have called this hAT element MPF for Methylated region near Promoter of FLC, although de novo methylation triggered by an inverted repeat transgene at this region in Col does not alter its FLC expression. DNA methylation of the Ler allele MPF is dependent on genes in known silencing pathways, and such methylation is transmissible to Col by genetic crosses, although with varying degrees of penetrance. A genome-wide comparison of Ler and Col small RNAs identified at least 68 loci matched by a significant level of ∼24 nt siRNAs present specifically in Ler but not Col, where nearly half of the loci are related to repeat or TE sequences. Methylation analysis revealed that 88% of the examined loci (37 out of 42) were specifically methylated in Ler but not Col, suggesting that small RNA can direct epigenetic differences between two closely related Arabidopsis ecotypes. Phenotypic variation has been mainly attributed to their differences in genetic materials, i.e., the DNA sequence. The advances in Epigenetics in past decades has revealed it as a fundamental mechanism that could inheritably influence gene function without change in DNA sequence, but by modulating chemical modifications on DNA itself (methylation), or on histone proteins, which package the DNA further into nucleosome. Nevertheless, the roles of epigenetic regulation in natural variation were not explored much because of the limitation in high-throughput analytical tools. A recent study in model plant Arabidopsis showed that there are many DNA methylation polymorphisms between the two ecotypes. In plant, a subset of RNA named small interfering RNA (siRNA), is capable of triggering the epigenetic modifications on DNA or histone at their target region with complementary nucleotide sequences. Here, we took a view from the small RNA side and by applying molecular and bioinformatic approaches we showed that the same region could be led to a different epigenetic status because of the difference in their corresponding small RNA abundance and between the two closely related Arabidopsis ecotypes, suggesting that there could be small RNA-directed epigenetic differences among natural populations.