Regulation of plant chromatin organization by lamin proteins

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Chang Liu
• Subject Area: Plant Cell and Developmental Biology ; Plant Genetics and Genomics
• Term: from 2019 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 421979593

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.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants