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Article
Histone deacetylation primes self-propagation of heterochromatin domains to promote epigenetic inheritance
Heterochromatin assembly, involving histone H3 lysine-9 methylation (H3K9me), is nucleated at specific genomic sites but can self-propagate across extended domains and, indeed, generations. Self-propagation re...
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Article
TOR targets an RNA processing network to regulate facultative heterochromatin, developmental gene expression and cell proliferation
Cell proliferation and differentiation require signalling pathways that enforce appropriate and timely gene expression. We find that Tor2, the catalytic subunit of the TORC1 complex in fission yeast, targets a...
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Article
Open AccessConserved protein Pir2ARS2 mediates gene repression through cryptic introns in lncRNAs
Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are components of epigenetic control mechanisms that ensure appropriate and timely gene expression. The functions of lncRNAs are often mediated through associated gene regulatory...
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Article
Open AccessA conserved dimer interface connects ERH and YTH family proteins to promote gene silencing
Gene regulatory mechanisms rely on a complex network of RNA processing factors to prevent untimely gene expression. In fission yeast, the highly conserved ortholog of human ERH, called Erh1, interacts with the...
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Article
Iron homeostasis regulates facultative heterochromatin assembly in adaptive genome control
Iron metabolism is critical for sustaining life and maintaining human health. Here, we find that iron homeostasis is linked to facultative heterochromatin assembly and regulation of gene expression during adap...
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Article
Untimely expression of gametogenic genes in vegetative cells causes uniparental disomy
Uniparental disomy in fission yeast is triggered by aberrant expression of gametogenic genes in vegetative cells, and is associated with the activation of meiotic cohesin Rec8 in cells with defects in the RNA ...
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Article
Cohesin-dependent globules and heterochromatin shape 3D genome architecture in S. pombe
Genome-wide chromatin conformation capture (Hi-C) is used to investigate three-dimensional genome organization in Schizosaccharomyces pombe; small domains of chromatin interact locally on chromosome arms to form ...
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Article
HDAC-mediated suppression of histone turnover promotes epigenetic stability of heterochromatin
The mechanisms underlying gene silencing and epigenetic stability of heterochromatin are not fully understood. New studies in fission yeast now show that heterochromatin differs from euchromatin in the turnove...
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Article
RNAi triggered by specialized machinery silences developmental genes and retrotransposons
In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe RNA interference (RNAi) machinery promotes heterochromatin assembly and silencing of centromeric repeats; here it is shown that RNAi participates in silencing other ...
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Article
Defects in RNA quality control factors reveal RNAi-independent nucleation of heterochromatin
Previous analyses have indicated that heterochromatin assembly in Schizosaccharomyces pombe involves an RNAi-mediated mechanism. Analyses aimed at elucidating the targeting of heterochromatin at centromeres now s...
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Article
Histone H2A.Z cooperates with RNAi and heterochromatin factors to suppress antisense RNAs
Unregulated transcription of antisense RNAs is potentially deleterious to a cell because sense–antisense pairing could affect gene expression. In this study, Zofall et al. examine how antisense transcription is h...
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Article
Roles of the Clr4 methyltransferase complex in nucleation, spreading and maintenance of heterochromatin
Heterochromatin assembly, involving methylation of histone H3 lysine 9 (H3K9me), regulates various chromosomal processes. In fission yeast, heterochromatin targeted to specific repeat loci in an RNAi-dependent...
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Article
Cell cycle control of centromeric repeat transcription and heterochromatin assembly
RNA polymerase II transcribes heterochromatic repeat sequences preferentially during S-phase of the cell cycle, a timing that is enforced by heterochromatin restricting RNAPII access. Chromatin modifying enzym...
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Article
Host genome surveillance for retrotransposons by transposon-derived proteins
Transposable elements and their remnants constitute a substantial fraction of eukaryotic genomes. Host genomes have evolved defence mechanisms, including chromatin modifications and RNA interference, to regula...
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Article
Transcription and RNA interference in the formation of heterochromatin
Transcription in heterochromatin seems to be an oxymoron — surely the 'silenced' form of chromatin should not be transcribed. But there have been frequent reports of low-level transcription in heterochromatic ...
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Article
Distinct roles of HDAC complexes in promoter silencing, antisense suppression and DNA damage protection
Histone acetylation is important in regulating DNA accessibility. Multifunctional Sin3 proteins bind histone deacetylases (HDACs) to assemble silencing complexes that selectively target chromatin. We show that...
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Article
Heterochromatin revisited
Heterochromatin is a DNA-packaging state that is commonly associated with transcriptional silencing and repression of recombination.
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Article
Ubiquitin ligase component Cul4 associates with Clr4 histone methyltransferase to assemble heterochromatin
In eukaryotes, heterochromatin mediates diverse processes including gene silencing and regulation of long-range chromatin interactions1,2. The formation of heterochromatin involves a conserved array of histone mo...
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Article
Comprehensive analysis of heterochromatin- and RNAi-mediated epigenetic control of the fission yeast genome
The organization of eukaryotic genomes into distinct structural and functional domains is important for the regulation and transduction of genetic information. Here, we investigated heterochromatin and euchrom...
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Article
RITS acts in cis to promote RNA interference–mediated transcriptional and post-transcriptional silencing
RNA interference is a conserved mechanism by which double-stranded RNA is processed into short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) that can trigger both post-transcriptional and transcriptional gene silencing. In fissio...
