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Distinct Responses of Arabidopsis Telomeres and Transposable Elements to Zebularine Exposure

Involvement of epigenetic mechanisms in the regulation of telomeres and transposable elements (TEs), genomic regions with the protective and potentially detrimental function, respectively, has been frequently studied. Here, we analyzed telomere lengths in Arabidopsis thaliana plants of Columbia, Lan...

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Autores principales: Konečná, Klára, Sováková, Pavla Polanská, Anteková, Karin, Fajkus, Jiří, Fojtová, Miloslava
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7796508/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33466545
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms22010468
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author Konečná, Klára
Sováková, Pavla Polanská
Anteková, Karin
Fajkus, Jiří
Fojtová, Miloslava
author_facet Konečná, Klára
Sováková, Pavla Polanská
Anteková, Karin
Fajkus, Jiří
Fojtová, Miloslava
author_sort Konečná, Klára
collection PubMed
description Involvement of epigenetic mechanisms in the regulation of telomeres and transposable elements (TEs), genomic regions with the protective and potentially detrimental function, respectively, has been frequently studied. Here, we analyzed telomere lengths in Arabidopsis thaliana plants of Columbia, Landsberg erecta and Wassilevskija ecotypes exposed repeatedly to the hypomethylation drug zebularine during germination. Shorter telomeres were detected in plants growing from seedlings germinated in the presence of zebularine with a progression in telomeric phenotype across generations, relatively high inter-individual variability, and diverse responses among ecotypes. Interestingly, the extent of telomere shortening in zebularine Columbia and Wassilevskija plants corresponded to the transcriptional activation of TEs, suggesting a correlated response of these genomic elements to the zebularine treatment. Changes in lengths of telomeres and levels of TE transcripts in leaves were not always correlated with a hypomethylation of cytosines located in these regions, indicating a cytosine methylation-independent level of their regulation. These observations, including differences among ecotypes together with distinct dynamics of the reversal of the disruption of telomere homeostasis and TEs transcriptional activation, reflect a complex involvement of epigenetic processes in the regulation of crucial genomic regions. Our results further demonstrate the ability of plant cells to cope with these changes without a critical loss of the genome stability.
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spelling pubmed-77965082021-01-10 Distinct Responses of Arabidopsis Telomeres and Transposable Elements to Zebularine Exposure Konečná, Klára Sováková, Pavla Polanská Anteková, Karin Fajkus, Jiří Fojtová, Miloslava Int J Mol Sci Article Involvement of epigenetic mechanisms in the regulation of telomeres and transposable elements (TEs), genomic regions with the protective and potentially detrimental function, respectively, has been frequently studied. Here, we analyzed telomere lengths in Arabidopsis thaliana plants of Columbia, Landsberg erecta and Wassilevskija ecotypes exposed repeatedly to the hypomethylation drug zebularine during germination. Shorter telomeres were detected in plants growing from seedlings germinated in the presence of zebularine with a progression in telomeric phenotype across generations, relatively high inter-individual variability, and diverse responses among ecotypes. Interestingly, the extent of telomere shortening in zebularine Columbia and Wassilevskija plants corresponded to the transcriptional activation of TEs, suggesting a correlated response of these genomic elements to the zebularine treatment. Changes in lengths of telomeres and levels of TE transcripts in leaves were not always correlated with a hypomethylation of cytosines located in these regions, indicating a cytosine methylation-independent level of their regulation. These observations, including differences among ecotypes together with distinct dynamics of the reversal of the disruption of telomere homeostasis and TEs transcriptional activation, reflect a complex involvement of epigenetic processes in the regulation of crucial genomic regions. Our results further demonstrate the ability of plant cells to cope with these changes without a critical loss of the genome stability. MDPI 2021-01-05 /pmc/articles/PMC7796508/ /pubmed/33466545 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms22010468 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Konečná, Klára
Sováková, Pavla Polanská
Anteková, Karin
Fajkus, Jiří
Fojtová, Miloslava
Distinct Responses of Arabidopsis Telomeres and Transposable Elements to Zebularine Exposure
title Distinct Responses of Arabidopsis Telomeres and Transposable Elements to Zebularine Exposure
title_full Distinct Responses of Arabidopsis Telomeres and Transposable Elements to Zebularine Exposure
title_fullStr Distinct Responses of Arabidopsis Telomeres and Transposable Elements to Zebularine Exposure
title_full_unstemmed Distinct Responses of Arabidopsis Telomeres and Transposable Elements to Zebularine Exposure
title_short Distinct Responses of Arabidopsis Telomeres and Transposable Elements to Zebularine Exposure
title_sort distinct responses of arabidopsis telomeres and transposable elements to zebularine exposure
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7796508/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33466545
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms22010468
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