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Molecular and Cellular Biology, June 1999, p. 3958-3968, Vol. 19, No. 6
0270-7306/99/$04.00+0

Transcriptional Repression by XPc1, a New Polycomb Homolog in Xenopus laevis Embryos, Is Independent of Histone Deacetylase

John Strouboulis, Sashko Damjanovski, Danielle Vermaak, Funda Meric, and Alan P. Wolffe*

Laboratory of Molecular Embryology, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-5431

Received 21 December 1998/Returned for modification 19 February 1999/Accepted 3 March 1999

The Polycomb group (Pc-G) genes encode proteins that assemble into complexes implicated in the epigenetic maintenance of heritable patterns of expression of developmental genes, a function largely conserved from Drosophila to mammals and plants. The Pc-G is thought to act at the chromatin level to silence expression of target genes; however, little is known about the molecular basis of this repression. In keeping with the evidence that Pc-G homologs in higher vertebrates exist in related pairs, we report here the isolation of XPc1, a second Polycomb homolog in Xenopus laevis. We show that XPc1 message is maternally deposited in a translationally masked form in Xenopus oocytes, with XPc1 protein first appearing in embryonic nuclei shortly after the blastula stage. XPc1 acts as a transcriptional repressor in vivo when tethered to a promoter in Xenopus embryos. We find that XPc1-mediated repression can be only partially alleviated by an increase in transcription factor dosage and that inhibition of deacetylase activity by trichostatin A treatment has no effect on XPc1 repression, suggesting that histone deacetylation does not form the basis for Pc-G-mediated repression in our assay.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Laboratory of Molecular Embryology, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Building 18T, Room 106, Bethesda, MD 20892-5431. Phone: (301) 496 4045. Fax: (301) 402 1323. E-mail: awlme{at}helix.nih.gov.

Molecular and Cellular Biology, June 1999, p. 3958-3968, Vol. 19, No. 6
0270-7306/99/$04.00+0


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