DOI: 10.1126/science.1093686. RNAi-Mediated Targeting of Heterochromatin by the RITS Complex

RNAi-Mediated Targeting of Heterochromatin by the RITS Complex

10.1126/science.1093686

Crossref journal-article

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Science (221)

Abstract

RNA interference (RNAi) is a widespread silencing mechanism that acts at both the posttranscriptional and transcriptional levels. Here, we describe the purification of an RNAi effector complex termed RITS (RNA-induced initiation of transcriptional gene silencing) that is required for heterochromatin assembly in fission yeast. The RITS complex contains Ago1 (the fission yeast Argonaute homolog), Chp1 (a heterochromatin-associated chromodomain protein), and Tas3 (a novel protein). In addition, the complex contains small RNAs that require the Dicer ribonuclease for their production. These small RNAs are homologous to centromeric repeats and are required for the localization of RITS to heterochromatic domains. The results suggest a mechanism for the role of the RNAi machinery and small RNAs in targeting of heterochromatin complexes and epigenetic gene silencing at specific chromosomal loci.

Bibliography

Verdel, A., Jia, S., Gerber, S., Sugiyama, T., Gygi, S., Grewal, S. I. S., & Moazed, D. (2004). RNAi-Mediated Targeting of Heterochromatin by the RITS Complex. Science, 303(5658), 672â676.

Authors 7

André Verdel (first)
Songtao Jia (additional)
Scott Gerber (additional)
Tomoyasu Sugiyama (additional)
Steven Gygi (additional)
Shiv I. S. Grewal (additional)
Danesh Moazed (additional)

References 27 Referenced 1,001

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We thank M. Ohi K. Gould C. Hoffman and D. Wolf for gifts of strains and plasmids; members of the Moazed Grewal and Reed laboratories for support and encouragement; R Ohi and El C. Ibrahim for advice; El C. Ibrahim and M. Wahi for comments on the manuscript; and C. Centrella for technical help. A.V. was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from INSERM and is now a fellow of the Human Frontier Science Programme. This work was supported by grants from the NIH (S.I.S.G. and D.M.) and a Carolyn and Peter S. Lynch Award in Cell Biology and Pathology (D.M.). D.M. is a scholar of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Dates

Type	When
Created	21 years, 7 months ago (Jan. 5, 2004, 8:13 p.m.)
Deposited	1 year, 7 months ago (Jan. 9, 2024, 10:52 p.m.)
Indexed	2 days, 21 hours ago (Aug. 20, 2025, 9:08 a.m.)
Issued	21 years, 6 months ago (Jan. 30, 2004)
Published	21 years, 6 months ago (Jan. 30, 2004)
Published Print	21 years, 6 months ago (Jan. 30, 2004)

Funders 0

None

BibTeX

@article{Verdel_2004, title={RNAi-Mediated Targeting of Heterochromatin by the RITS Complex}, volume={303}, ISSN={1095-9203}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1093686}, DOI={10.1126/science.1093686}, number={5658}, journal={Science}, publisher={American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)}, author={Verdel, André and Jia, Songtao and Gerber, Scott and Sugiyama, Tomoyasu and Gygi, Steven and Grewal, Shiv I. S. and Moazed, Danesh}, year={2004}, month=jan, pages={672–676} }

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