Repression of plant genes by TFL2/LHP1 and Polycomb Group Proteins

• Applicant: Dr. Franziska Turck
• Subject Area: Plant Cell and Developmental Biology
• Term: from 2008 to 2012
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 82511255

Epigenetic repression of gene expression in plants and animals is mediated by chromatin modifications such as methylation of lysine residues of H3 at position 9 or 27. By using a ChIP-chip approach showed that contrary to predictions based on sequence homology, the Arabidopsis protein TFL2/LHP1, a relative of animal HP1, plays a role in repressing transcription of many regulatory genes via H3K27me3. To better understand the role of TFL2/LHP1 in plants, we propose to identify interaction partners of TFL2/LHP1 and elucidate the specific function that TFL2/LHP1 plays in the transcriptional repression of a subset of H3K27me3-associated target genes.Abbreviations in summary: H3: HISTONE 3; ChIP-chip: Chromatin immunoprecipitation hybridized to DNA microarray; TFL2: TERMINAL FLOWER 2; LHP1: LIKEHETEROCHROMATIN PROTEIN 1; HP1: HETEROCHROMATIN PROTEIN 1; H3K27me3: HISTONE 3-lysine 27 tri-methyl;

• DFG Programme: Research Grants