Crosstalk between the circadian clock and histone methylation

Changhui Sun#*, Shihang Liu#, Changcai He, Chao Zhong, Hongying Liu, Xu Luo, Ke Li, Kuan Zhang, Qian Wang, Congping Chen, Yulin Tang, Bin Yang, Xiaoqiong Chen, Peizhou Xu, Shuangcheng Li, Ting Zou, Peng Qin, Pingrong Wang, Chengcai Chu, Xiaojian Deng*

International Journal of Molecular Sciences (TOP, IF=5.924), 2022

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23126465

Abstract

The circadian clock and histone modifications could form a feedback loop in Arabidopsis; whether a similar regulatory mechanism exists in rice is still unknown. Previously, we reported that SDG724 and OsLHY are two rice heading date regulators in rice. SDG724 encodes a histone H3K36 methyltransferase, and OsLHY is a vital circadian rhythm transcription factor. Both could be involved in transcription regulatory mechanisms and could affect gene expression in various pathways. To explore the crosstalk between the circadian clock and histone methylation in rice, we studied the relationship between OsLHY and SDG724 via the transcriptome analysis of their single and double mutants, oslhy, sdg724, and oslhy sdg724. Screening of overlapped DEGs and KEGG pathways between OsLHY and SDG724 revealed that they could control many overlapped pathways indirectly. Furthermore, we identified three candidate targets (OsGI, OsCCT38, and OsPRR95) of OsLHY and one candidate target (OsCRY1a) of SDG724 in the clock pathway. Our results showed a regulatory relationship between OsLHY and SDG724, which paved the way for revealing the interaction between the circadian clock and histone H3K36 methylation.

Keywords: rice (Oryza sativa); OsLHY; SDG724; circadian clock; histone modification; crosstalk; transcriptome analysis