LUMINIDEPENDENS orchestrates global transcriptional repression in <i>Arabidopsis</i>

Genomic integrity is constantly challenged by transcription/replication conflicts, a major source of replication stress and instability across all life forms. While extensive studies have elucidated mechanisms for resolving transcription/replication conflicts in animals, yeast, and prokaryotes, their counterparts in plants remain largely unexplored. Through a forward genetic screen, we identified LUMINIDEPENDENS (LD), previously known for its role in regulating the flowering repressor <i>FLC</i>, as a key factor in mitigating replication stress in plants. Notably, transcriptomic analyses reveal that LD loss results in the upregulation of over half of the <i>Arabidopsis</i> genes, placing LD as a global transcriptional repressor. Consistent with this role, LD directly binds a substantial portion of the <i>Arabidopsis</i> genome and interacts with the MED18 subunit of the Mediator complex to modulate RNA polymerase II phosphorylation. These findings uncover a fundamental function of LD in fine-tuning transcription at a genome-wide scale, with potentially an additional role in suppressing transcription-replication conflicts by locally dampening transcription and promoting replication fork progression. Our work highlights an intriguing genome-protective strategy in plants, that could shed light on mechanisms involved in transcription-replication conflict management in eukaryotic systems.

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Publication Details

Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Published
2025-12-02
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2527372122
Primary Topic
DNA Repair Mechanisms
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

LUMINIDEPENDENS orchestrates global transcriptional repression in Arabidopsis

Jeannine Drouin‐Wahbi, Geert De Jaeger, Clara Bergis, Cécile Raynaud et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
DNA Repair Mechanisms
article

LUMINIDEPENDENS orchestrates global transcriptional repression in Arabidopsis

Jeannine Drouin‐Wahbi, Geert De Jaeger, Clara Bergis, Cécile Raynaud, Rim Brik‐Chaouche, David Latrasse, Maherun Nisa, Jelle Van Leene, Vera B. Kaiser, Jose Gutierrez‐Marcos, Moussa Benhamed, Catherine Bergounioux, Clara Bourbousse, Christelle Mazubert, Layla Chmaiss, Xiaoning He, Qingyi Wang
article en

Abstract

Genomic integrity is constantly challenged by transcription/replication conflicts, a major source of replication stress and instability across all life forms. While extensive studies have elucidated mechanisms for resolving transcription/replication conflicts in animals, yeast, and prokaryotes, their counterparts in plants remain largely unexplored. Through a forward genetic screen, we identified LUMINIDEPENDENS (LD), previously known for its role in regulating the flowering repressor <i>FLC</i>, as a key factor in mitigating replication stress in plants. Notably, transcriptomic analyses reveal that LD loss results in the upregulation of over half of the <i>Arabidopsis</i> genes, placing LD as a global transcriptional repressor. Consistent with this role, LD directly binds a substantial portion of the <i>Arabidopsis</i> genome and interacts with the MED18 subunit of the Mediator complex to modulate RNA polymerase II phosphorylation. These findings uncover a fundamental function of LD in fine-tuning transcription at a genome-wide scale, with potentially an additional role in suppressing transcription-replication conflicts by locally dampening transcription and promoting replication fork progression. Our work highlights an intriguing genome-protective strategy in plants, that could shed light on mechanisms involved in transcription-replication conflict management in eukaryotic systems.

Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesVol. 122(49)
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Inserm (FR), Institut Universitaire de France (FR), Université Paris Cité (FR), Université Paris-Saclay (FR), Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie (BE), Ghent University (BE), University of Warwick (GB), Sorbonne Université (FR), Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (FR), Institut des Sciences des Plantes de Paris Saclay (FR), Institut de Biologie Paris-Seine (FR), Développement Adaptation et Vieillissement (FR)
Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale
Openalex Percentile: Top 66%
DNA Repair Mechanisms
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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