Repetitive elements, such as transposons, comprise a large portion of the genome that iskept silent to maintain genome integrity. Transposon silencing is a canonical role ofRNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) where small interfering RNA (siRNA) and longnon-coding RNA (lncRNA) work together to place repressive chromatin marks. In additionto its role in controlling repetitive sequences, RdDM contributes to the regulation ofgene expression yet molecular mechanisms utilized by RdDM to control gene expressionremain mostly unknown. We show that the repression of gene expression by RdDM mayinvolve preventing interactions between distant chromosomal regions.

Long-range control of gene expression viaRNA-directed DNA methylation
M. Jordan Rowley, M. Hafiz Rothi, Gudrun Bohmdorfer, Jan Kuciński, Andrzej T. Wierzbicki

PLOS Genetics | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1006749  May 5, 2017