Using CG methylation (mCG) of heterochromatic transposons as a trait for GWAS, we identified a major genetic association to an uncharacterized gene: a plant ortholog of vertebrate CDCA7.

And this great Nature Plants News & Views by Pandesha and Slotkin covering this breakthrough discovery
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@hadse.bsky.social @KeithSlotkin @natplants.nature.com
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Interested in learning even more?
Check out complementary work from Wu and Jacobsen revealing roles for a TF binding protein in this new mode of DNA methylation targeting. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@jacobsenucla.bsky.social @ZhongshouWu
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This new targeting mode for DNA methylation also opens new avenues for pursuing precise epigenomic editing to correcting DNA methylation defects and or engineer new epialleles for crop improvement.
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This discovery transforms our view of how DNA methylation patterns are regulated in plants—moving from purely chromatin-driven models to an integrated framework where TFs guide methylation reprogramming during development.
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This new TF-based mode of targeting controls the vast majority of siRNAs used by the RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) pathway to target methylation in anthers and ovules, revealing it plays a massive role in shaping the epigenome in plant reproductive tissues.
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Leveraging genome engineering, we demonstrated that the DNA motif bound by a RIM TF is required to target methylation and that mis-expression of this TF can remodel the epigenome in a locus- and tissue-specific manner. In short, the DNA motifs and TFs are necessary AND sufficient.
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Using forward and reverse genetics approaches we identified several REM family TFs that Instruct DNA methylation, designated as RIMs. We showed that different RIMs regulate methylation patterns in male and female reproductive tissues.
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