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A DNA element that remembers winter

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Polycomb-mediated silencing of the floral repressor gene FLC in response to long-term cold is a central event during vernalization in Arabidopsis thaliana, but how it is initiated is unclear. Two new studies identify a DNA element that mediates FLC silencing by attracting a pair of transcriptional repressors, VAL1 and VAL2, which in turn trigger epigenetic silencing by the Polycomb complex PHD–PRC2.

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Figure 1: Proposed roles of the sequence-specific transcriptional repressors VAL1 and VAL2 in epigenetic silencing of FLC during vernalization.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chenlong Li and Yuhai Cui are at the London Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, London, Ontario, Canada,

    Chenlong Li & Yuhai Cui

  2. Yuhai Cui is also in the Department of Biology, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.,

    Yuhai Cui

Authors
  1. Chenlong Li
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  2. Yuhai Cui
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Correspondence to Chenlong Li or Yuhai Cui.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Li, C., Cui, Y. A DNA element that remembers winter. Nat Genet 48, 1451–1452 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.3727

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