Role of DNA methylation in EMF-mediated floral repression
( By April Dobbs, 4/26/2006)

We are investigating whether EMF2 represses AGAMOUS by DNA methylation during vegetative growth in Arabidopsis. The flower homeotic genes, e.g., AG, AP3, and PI are predicted targets of the PcG complex, of which EMF2 is a member (Moon et al. 2003). EMF2 interacts with the histone methyltransferase, CLF, and is homologous to the Drosophila Su(z)12. While the histone methyltransferases mark the target genes with a methyl group for their eventual silencing, the role of EMF2 or Su(z)12 in the PcG complex is poorly known. Histone methylation is required for DNA methylation, and these processes maintain heterochromatin in certain Arabidopsis genes, whereby silencing them (Stancheva et al. 2005). To investigate whether DNA methylation is involved in the EMF2 protein complex-mediated gene silencing, we are employing the genomic bisulfite sequencing method to compare the extent of DNA methylation in the AGAMOUS gene in the WT and emf2 mutant.