H2A.X promotes endosperm-specific DNA methylation in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Background: H2A.X is an H2A variant histone in eukaryotes, unique for its ability to respond to DNA damage, initiating the DNA repair pathway. H2A.

H2A.X promotes endosperm-specific DNA methylation in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Background: H2A.X is an H2A variant histone in eukaryotes, unique for its ability to respond to DNA damage, initiating the DNA repair pathway. H2A.

The Daisho Peptides Mediate Defense Against a Subset of Filamentous Fungi.

Fungal infections, widespread throughout the world, affect a broad range of life forms, including agriculturally relevant plants, humans, and insects. In defending against fungal infections, the fruit fly employs the Toll pathway to induce a large number of immune peptides. Some have been investigated, such as the antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and Bomanins (Boms); many, however, remain uncharacterized.

Bombardier Enables Delivery of Short-Form Bomanins in the Toll Response.

Toll mediates a robust and effective innate immune response across vertebrates and invertebrates. In , activation of Toll by systemic infection drives the accumulation of a rich repertoire of immune effectors in hemolymph, including the recently characterized Bomanins, as well as the classical antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). Here we report the functional characterization of a Toll-induced hemolymph protein encoded by the () gene.

Short-Form Bomanins Mediate Humoral Immunity in Drosophila.

The Bomanins (Boms) are a family of a dozen secreted peptides that mediate the innate immune response governed by the Drosophila Toll receptor. We recently showed that deleting a cluster of 10 Bom genes blocks Toll-mediated defenses against a range of fungi and gram-positive bacteria. Here, we characterize the activity of individual Bom family members.

FACT complex is required for DNA demethylation at heterochromatin during reproduction in .

The DEMETER (DME) DNA glycosylase catalyzes genome-wide DNA demethylation and is required for endosperm genomic imprinting and embryo viability. Targets of DME-mediated DNA demethylation reside in small, euchromatic, AT-rich transposons and at the boundaries of large transposons, but how DME interacts with these diverse chromatin states is unknown. The STRUCTURE SPECIFIC RECOGNITION PROTEIN 1 (SSRP1) subunit of the chromatin remodeler FACT (facilitates chromatin transactions), was previously shown to be involved in the DME-dependent regulation of genomic imprinting in endosperm.