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Molecular and Cellular Biology, October 2008, p. 6044-6055, Vol. 28, No. 19
0270-7306/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/MCB.00823-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Direct Interaction between DNA Methyltransferase DIM-2 and HP1 Is Required for DNA Methylation in Neurospora crassa{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Shinji Honda and Eric U. Selker*

Institute of Molecular Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-1229

Received 21 May 2008/ Returned for modification 11 June 2008/ Accepted 21 July 2008

DNA methylation is involved in gene silencing and genomic stability in mammals, plants, and fungi. Genetics studies of Neurospora crassa have revealed that a DNA methyltransferase (DIM-2), a histone H3K9 methyltransferase (DIM-5), and heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) are required for DNA methylation. We explored the interrelationships of these components of the methylation machinery. A yeast two-hybrid screen revealed that HP1 interacts with DIM-2. We confirmed the interaction in vivo and demonstrated that it involves a pair of PXVXL-related motifs in the N-terminal region of DIM-2 and the chromo shadow domain of HP1. Both regions are essential for proper DNA methylation. We also determined that DIM-2 and HP1 form a stable complex independently of the trimethylation of histone H3K9, although the association of DIM-2 with its substrate sequences depends on trimethyl-H3K9. The DIM-2/HP1 complex does not include DIM-5. We conclude that DNA methylation in Neurospora is largely or exclusively the result of a unidirectional pathway in which DIM-5 methylates histone H3K9 and then the DIM-2/HP1 complex recognizes the resulting trimethyl-H3K9 mark via the chromo domain of HP1.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institute of Molecular Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1229. Phone: (541) 346-5193. Fax: (541) 346-5891. E-mail: selker{at}uoregon.edu

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 4 August 2008.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://mcb.asm.org/.

Molecular and Cellular Biology, October 2008, p. 6044-6055, Vol. 28, No. 19
0270-7306/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/MCB.00823-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Honda, S., Selker, E. U. (2009). Tools for Fungal Proteomics: Multifunctional Neurospora Vectors for Gene Replacement, Protein Expression and Protein Purification. Genetics 182: 11-23 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Lewis, Z. A., Honda, S., Khlafallah, T. K., Jeffress, J. K., Freitag, M., Mohn, F., Schubeler, D., Selker, E. U. (2009). Relics of repeat-induced point mutation direct heterochromatin formation in Neurospora crassa. Genome Res 19: 427-437 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Fischle, W. (2008). Talk is cheap--cross-talk in establishment, maintenance, and readout of chromatin modifications. Genes Dev. 22: 3375-3382 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Adhvaryu, K. K., Selker, E. U. (2008). Protein phosphatase PP1 is required for normal DNA methylation in Neurospora. Genes Dev. 22: 3391-3396 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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