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So this paper is concerned with the mechanism by which plants silence the expression of mobile elements. It was known that these elements were silenced by methylation; and this paper provides evidence that the relevant methyltransferases are guided to the mobile elements by short 24-nt RNA molecules. These molecules are produced in the plant stem, and migrate to the root.
That a microRNA acts by methylating the promoter of a target transcribed element is not new, see this review from 2008 and a direct example of miRNA-directed promoter methylation here. So I suppose the novelty here is that the silencing of mobile elements in root tissue is driven by the expression of a miRNA from external sources.
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[–] doompie ago
This submission has no place in /v/genetics.
Go try over at /v/genomics to find someone who cares! Or maybe /v/epigenetics
/s
So this paper is concerned with the mechanism by which plants silence the expression of mobile elements. It was known that these elements were silenced by methylation; and this paper provides evidence that the relevant methyltransferases are guided to the mobile elements by short 24-nt RNA molecules. These molecules are produced in the plant stem, and migrate to the root.
That a microRNA acts by methylating the promoter of a target transcribed element is not new, see this review from 2008 and a direct example of miRNA-directed promoter methylation here. So I suppose the novelty here is that the silencing of mobile elements in root tissue is driven by the expression of a miRNA from external sources.