时间：2016年5月20日（周五）上午11点-12点

地点：生科院2楼大会议室

报告人：吴柘 博士 英国约翰英纳斯中心 (the John Innes Centre, UK)

主持人：张阳 研究员

题目：Linking co-transcriptional RNA processing with chromatin silencing in Arabidopsis: FLC, COOLAIR and more.

摘要：Chromatin silencing is at the heart of gene repression, forming the basis for epigenetic inheritance in many systems. One counterintuitive but remarkable observation in the field is that transcription is actually required to robustly silence genes, raising the question of how these processes are inter-connected. We are dissecting a transcriptional repression mechanism at FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) in Arabidopsis, in which processing of an antisense long non-coding RNA, COOLAIR, is linked to chromatin silencing. Using a combination of Pol II ChIP, chromatin-bound RNA, single molecule RNA-FISH and mathematical modelling, we have found that the FLC silenced state features very low rates of both transcriptional initiation and elongation. This finding complies with the high H3K27me3 and low H3K36me3 levels observed at the locus. Such coordinated transcriptional initiation and elongation, as influenced by chromatin state, is likely to be a general feature of quantitative gene regulation. We have further studied the mode of action of a key RNA-processing factor, FCA, in this repression mechanism. Up to date results will be discussed during the talk.

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报告人简介：

吴柘博士毕业于北京大学，目前在英国约翰英纳斯中心进行博士后研究。师从表观遗传学家，英国皇家科学院院士以及美国科学院外籍院士Caroline Dean教授。主要研究方向为植物表观遗传学。目前已在Molecular Cell, the EMBO Journal, PNAS, the Plant Cell等国际顶尖学术杂志上发表多篇高水平论文。