Transgene silencing of the al-1 gene in vegetative cells of neurospora is mediated by a cytoplasmic effector and does not depend on DNA-DNA interactions or DNA methylation

Carlo Cogoni, Jeffrey T. Irelan, Marc Schumacher, Thomas J. Schmidhauser, Eric U. Selker, Giuseppe Macino

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

302 Scopus citations

Abstract

The molecular mechanisms involved in transgene-induced gene silencing ('quelling') in Neurospora crassa were investigated using the carotenoid biosynthetic gene albino-1 (al-1) as a visual marker. Deletion derivatives of the al-1 gene showed that a transgene must contain at least ~ 132 bp of sequences homologous to the transcribed region of the native gene in order to induce quelling. Transgenes containing only al-1 promoter sequences do not cause quelling. Specific sequences are not required for gene silencing, as different regions of the al-1 gene produced quelling. A mutant defective in cytosine methylation (dim-2) exhibited normal frequencies and degrees of silencing, indicating that cytosine methylation is not responsible for quelling, despite the fact that methylation of transgene sequences frequently is correlated with silencing. Silencing was shown to be a dominant trait, operative in heterokaryotic strains containing a mixture of transgenic and non-transgenic nuclei. This result indicates that a diffusable, trans-acting molecule is involved in quelling. A transgene-derived, sense RNA was detected in quelled strains and was found to be absent in their revertants. These data are consistent with a model in which an RNA-DNA or RNA-RNA interaction is involved in transgene-induced gene silencing in Neurospora.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)3153-3163
Number of pages11
JournalEMBO Journal
Volume15
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - 1996

Keywords

  • Co-suppression
  • DNA methylation
  • Neurospora crassa
  • Quelling
  • Silencing

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Neuroscience
  • Molecular Biology
  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • General Immunology and Microbiology

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