T-DNA-genome junctions form early after infection and are influenced by the chromatin state of the host genome

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1006875
• Publication Date: 2017-07-24T13:47:47Z
• Authors: Shay Shilo; Pooja Tripathi; Cathy Melamed-Bes...; Oren Tzfadia; Theodore R. Muth; Avraham A. Levy
• Keywords: Euchromatin

Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated T-DNA integration is a common tool for plant genome manipulation. However, there controversy regarding whether biased towards genes or randomly distributed throughout the genome. In order to address this question, we performed high-throughput mapping of T-DNA-genome junctions obtained in absence selection at several time points after infection. were detected as early 6 hours post-infection. distribution was apparently uniform chromosomes, yet local biases toward AT-rich motifs and border sequence micro-homology detected. Analysis epigenetic landscape previously isolated sites Kanamycin-selected transgenic plants showed an association with extremely low methylation nucleosome occupancy. Conversely, non-selected from study no correlation had chromatin marks, such high occupancy H3K27me3, that correspond three-dimensional-interacting heterochromatin islands embedded within euchromatin. Such structures may play role capturing silencing invading T-DNA.