RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 ALBA protein complex reads genic R-loops to maintain genome stability in <em>Arabidopsis</em>
JF Science Advances
JO Sci Adv
FD American Association for the Advancement of Science
SP eaav9040
DO 10.1126/sciadv.aav9040
VO 5
IS 5
A1 Yuan, Wei
A1 Zhou, Jincong
A1 Tong, Jinjin
A1 Zhuo, Wanqing
A1 Wang, Lishuan
A1 Li, Yan
A1 Sun, Qianwen
A1 Qian, Weiqiang
YR 2019
UL http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/5/eaav9040.abstract
AB The R-loop, composed of a DNA-RNA hybrid and the displaced single-stranded DNA, regulates diverse cellular processes. However, how cellular R-loops are recognized remains poorly understood. Here, we report the discovery of the evolutionally conserved ALBA proteins (AtALBA1 and AtALBA2) functioning as the genic R-loop readers in Arabidopsis. While AtALBA1 binds to the DNA-RNA hybrid, AtALBA2 associates with single-stranded DNA in the R-loops in vitro. In vivo, these two proteins interact and colocalize in the nucleus, where they preferentially bind to genic regions with active epigenetic marks in an R-loop–dependent manner. Depletion of AtALBA1 or AtALBA2 results in hypersensitivity of plants to DNA damaging agents. The formation of DNA breaks in alba mutants originates from unprotected R-loops. Our results reveal that the AtALBA1 and AtALBA2 protein complex is the genic R-loop reader crucial for genome stability in Arabidopsis.