A spontaneous termination mechanism of RNA polymerase V shapes the DNA methylation landscape in plants
show that accumulation of unstable rU:dA pairs in the RNA-DNA hybrid promotes transcription bubble collapse and spontaneous transcription termination. These findings identify an intrinsic Pol V termination signal that shapes genomic DNA methylation patterning in plants and reveals a common mechanism for spontaneous transcription termination.
Authors
- Danling Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3385-403X)
- Steven E. Jacobsen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9483-138X)
- Zhe Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9436-3299)
- Sixian Zhou
- Colette L. Picard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2177-2216)
- Guohui Xie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4734-9114)
- Yifang Tan
- Songge Chai
- Sisi Li
- Jiamu Du
- Cheng Chi
- Jun Zhao
- Yan Xue
Institutions
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Shenzhen University (CN)
- Southern University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Shenzhen University Health Science Center (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The EMBO Journal
- Published
- 2026-04-02
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s44318-026-00763-7
- Primary Topic
- Plant Molecular Biology Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Natural Science Foundation of Shenzhen City
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province
- Southern University of Science and Technology
- Postdoctoral Research Foundation of China
- Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation of Guangdong Province