Regulation of plant chromatin organization by lamin proteins

核膜不仅是细胞核与细胞质之间的物理屏障，而且在调节基因组DNA的三维结构中起着关键作用。对于植物和动物，核周边（NP）是富含异染色质的功能区室。迄今为止，植物NP如何与染色质相互作用尚不清楚。继我们最近的报告显示在拟南芥染色质和NP之间的全基因组相互作用，我们发现，植物核纤层蛋白（CRWN 1）是必需的系留染色质的NP。随着对这种蛋白质的关注，在这里，我们提出了对了解它如何调节染色质活性的工作。本研究计划分为三个部分，第一部分是利用遗传学方法研究CRWN 1与染色质沉默的相互作用。在第二部分中，我们计划使用各种分子方法来研究这种核纤层蛋白如何与染色质和其他染色质调节剂相互作用。在第三部分中，我们将使用生物信息学方法来分析突变体植物中染色质结构和表观遗传景观的变化，并分析这些变化如何与基因转录相关联。总而言之，本项目的目的是提出第一个植物NP-染色质相互作用的功能研究，这将大大推进我们对植物核纤层蛋白在调节染色质活性中的作用的理解。

The nuclear envelope not only serves as a physical barrier separating nuclear content from the cytoplasm but also plays critical roles in modulating the three-dimensional organization of genomic DNA. For both plants and animals, the nuclear periphery (NP) is a functional compartment enriched for heterochromatin. To date, how plant NP interacts with chromatin is unclear. Following our recent report showing genome-wide interactions between chromatin and the NP in Arabidopsis, we found that a plant lamin protein (CRWN1) is required to tether chromatin to the NP. With a focus on this protein, here we propose work towards understanding how it regulates chromatin activity. We propose three parts in this project, in the first part, we will employ genetic approaches to identify chromatin silencing pathway(s) interacting with CRWN1. In the second part, we plan to use various molecular methods to study how this lamin protein interacts with chromatin and other chromatin regulators. In the third part, we will use bioinformatic approaches to profile changes in chromatin structure and epigenetic landscape in mutant plants and to analyze how these changes are linked to gene transcription. Altogether, this project aims to present the first functional study of plant NP-chromatin interactions, which will substantially advance our understanding of the role of plant lamins in regulating chromatin activity.