Trans-acting antisense RNAs mediate transcriptional gene cosuppression in S. cerevisiae

Jurgi Camblong; Nissrine Beyrouthy; Elisa Guffanti; Guillaume Schlaepfer; Lars M. Steinmetz; Françoise Stutz

doi:10.1101/gad.522509

Trans-acting antisense RNAs mediate transcriptional gene cosuppression in S. cerevisiae

Department of Cell Biology and NCCR “Frontiers in Genetics” Program, University of Geneva` 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland

Abstract

Homology-dependent gene silencing, a phenomenon described as cosuppression in plants, depends on siRNAs. We provide evidence that in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is missing the RNAi machinery, protein coding gene cosuppression exists. Indeed, introduction of an additional copy of PHO84 on a plasmid or within the genome results in the cosilencing of both the transgene and the endogenous gene. This repression is transcriptional and position-independent and requires trans-acting antisense RNAs. Antisense RNAs induce transcriptional gene silencing both in cis and in trans, and the two pathways differ by the implication of the Hda1/2/3 complex. We also show that trans-silencing is influenced by the Set1 histone methyltransferase, which promotes antisense RNA production. Finally we show that although antisense-mediated cis-silencing occurs in other genes, trans-silencing so far depends on features specific to PHO84. All together our data highlight the importance of noncoding RNAs in mediating RNAi-independent transcriptional gene silencing.

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Footnotes

↵1 Present addresses: Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3RE, United Kingdom;
↵2 European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Meyerhofstrasse 1, 69117 Heildelberg, Germany.
↵3 Corresponding author.

E-MAIL Francoise.Stutz{at}unige.ch; FAX 21-314-40-95.
Article is online at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.522509.
Supplemental material is available at http://www.genesdev.org.
- Received January 15, 2009.
- Accepted May 18, 2009.