Control of chromatin fates in pollen

Constitutive heterochromatin is involved in multiple chromosomal processes including silencing of repetitive DNA and chromosome segregation. We have found global centromeric heterochromatin decondensation in Arabidopsis pollen, which evokes a new aspect of constitutive heterochromatin. We aim to isolate genes involved in this process.

Selected publications

Ibarra C, Feng X, Schoft VK, Hsieh TF, Uzawa R, Rodrigues JA, Zemach A, Chumak N, Machlicova A, Nishimura T, Rojas D, Fischer RL, Tamaru H, Zilberman D (2012) Active DNA Demethylation in Plant Companion Cells Reinforces Transposon Methylation in Gametes. Science 337 no.6100:1360-1364

Schoft V, et al. (2011) Function of the DEMETER DNA glycosylase in the Arabidopsis thaliana male gametophyte. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 108:8042-8047.

Tamaru H (2010) Confining euchromatin/heterochromatin territory: jumonji crosses the line. Genes Dev 24:1465-1478.

Schoft V, et al. (2009) Induction of RNA-directed DNA methylation upon decondensation of constitutive heterochromatin. EMBO Reports 10:1015-1021.