Size and positional effects of promoter RNA segments on virus-induced RNA-directed DNA methylation and transcriptional gene silencing

DNA methylation at a gene promoter can be triggered by double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) through the RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) pathway and induces transcriptional gene silencing (TGS). Although genes involved in the RdDM pathway have been identified, whether dsRNAs of different promoter regions have different extent of effects on RdDM and/or TGS is unknown. Here, we addressed this question by targeting the CaMV 35S promoter in the plant genome using a recombinant Cucumber mosaic virus that contained various portions of the promoter. The efficiency of the induction of TGS depended on the length of the promoter segment triggering the RdDM; the lower size limit for TGS induction was 81-91 nt. TGS was induced when 70-nt fragments were connected in tandem, none of which solely induced TGS. TGS induction did not simply depend on the production of small interfering RNAs corresponding to the promoter. Along with the induction of RdDM, spreading of DNA methylation from the originally targeted site toward the adjacent regions was detected. The maintenance of TGS in the progeny that lacks an RNA trigger depended on the promoter segments triggering the RdDM in the former generation and was correlated with the number of cytosines at symmetrical sites in the targeted region. These results indicate that both the length of dsRNA above the threshold and the frequency of cytosines at symmetric sites in the region targeted by dsRNA are the major factors that allow induction of heritable TGS via RdDM.