|
From
•>>December 2003
Robert Martienssen answers
a few questions about this month's emerging research front
in
field of Molecular Biology & Genetics: Molecular Biology & Genetics
Article: Regulation of heterochromatic silencing and histone H3 lysine-9 methylation by RNAi
Authors: Volpe, TA;Kidner, C;Hall, IM;Teng, G;Grewal,
SIS;Martienssen, RA
Journal: SCIENCE, 297: (5588) 1833-1837, SEP 13 2002
Addresses:
Cold Spring Harbor
Lab, POB 100, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724 USA.
Cold Spring Harbor
Lab, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724 USA.
Watson Sch Biol Sci, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724 USA.
See also:
with Cold Spring Harbor
Lab
|
|
 Why
do you think your paper is highly cited?
There is a great deal of interest in epigenetic mechanisms of
inheritance and our paper provides a link between RNA and DNA
mediated silencing by histone modification. It suggests that RNA
interference, which is a very popular tool for gene knockouts, has a
sequence-specific role in transcriptional silencing. The mechanism
we describe also suggests a role for centromeric repeats ("junk
DNA") and their transcripts.
Does
it describe a new discovery or new methodology that's useful to
others?
Yes. It suggests that histone modification can be guided by RNA
sequences.
Could
you summarize the significance of your paper in layman's terms?
Genes lie on chromosomes, which affect their inheritance and
their control, but chromosomes also carry "junk DNA" of
unknown function. We show that "junk DNA" is expressed as
RNA, and that this controls chromosome structure and function via
histone modification guided by small RNA molecules and RNA
interference. The mechanism is sequence specific and regulates genes
and their inheritance. Conservation in the primitive yeast suggests
that RNA interference may have evolved partly for this purpose.
How
did you become involved in this research?
My laboratory was studying developmental mutants in plants, one
of which ("argonaute") effects RNA interference, and is
conserved in yeast. We chose to examine its role in yeast because of
its simple genome. I have been studying transposable elements and
repetitive DNA for many years, and am interested in the role of RNA
interference in regulating repetitive sequences and silencing.
Robert A. Martienssen
Cold Spring Harbor Lab
Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA
See also:
with Cold Spring Harbor
Lab
|
Return to Emerging Research Fronts | Return
to Special Topics main menu
|
