Digital Commons Network^™

Origin Of The Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 And Gene Silencing By An E(Z) Homolog In The Unicellular Alga Chlamydomonas, Scott Shaver, J. Armando Casas-Mollano, Ronald L. Cerny, Heriberto D. Cerutti

Center for Plant Science Innovation: Faculty and Staff Publications

Polycomb group proteins play an essential role in the maintenance of cell identity and the regulation of development in both animals and plants. The Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) is involved in the establishment of transcriptionally silent chromatin states, in part through its ability to methylate lysine 27 of histone H3 by the Enhancer of zeste [E(z)] subunit. The absence of PRC2 in unicellular model fungi and its function in the repression of genes vital for the development of higher eukaryotes led to the proposal that this complex may have evolved together with the emergence of multicellularity. However, we report …