Control of DNA demethylation by superoxide anion in plant stem cells.
Shiwen WangMin LiuDongping HuZhicheng DongZhong ZhaoPublished in: Nature chemical biology (2024)
Superoxide anion is thought to be a natural by-product with strong oxidizing ability in all living organisms and was recently found to accumulate in plant meristems to maintain stem cells in the shoot and undifferentiated meristematic cells in the root. Here we show that the DNA demethylase repressor of silencing 1 (ROS1) is one of the direct targets of superoxide in stem cells. The Fe-S clusters in ROS1 are oxidized by superoxide to activate its DNA glycosylase/lyase activity. We demonstrate that superoxide extensively participates in the establishment of active DNA demethylation in the Arabidopsis genome and that ARABIDOPSIS RESPONSE REGULATOR 12 acts downstream of ROS1-mediated superoxide signaling to maintain stem cell fate. Our results provide a mechanistic framework for superoxide control of the stem cell niche and demonstrate how redox and DNA demethylation interact to define stem cell fate in plants.
Keyphrases
- stem cells
- circulating tumor
- hydrogen peroxide
- cell fate
- cell free
- single molecule
- transcription factor
- dna damage
- cell therapy
- cell death
- nucleic acid
- reactive oxygen species
- induced apoptosis
- nitric oxide
- cell wall
- gene expression
- multidrug resistant
- mesenchymal stem cells
- signaling pathway
- plant growth
- cell proliferation
- bone marrow
- aqueous solution