PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Rita A. Batista
AU  - Jordi Moreno-Romero
AU  - Yichun Qiu
AU  - Joram van Boven
AU  - Juan Santos-González
AU  - Duarte D. Figueiredo
AU  - Claudia Köhler
TI  - The MADS-box transcription factor PHERES1 controls imprinting in the endosperm by binding to domesticated transposons
AID  - 10.1101/616698
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 616698
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/07/31/616698.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/07/31/616698.full
AB  - MADS-box transcription factors are ubiquitous in eukaryotic organisms and play major roles during plant development. Nevertheless, their function in seed development remains largely unknown. Here we show that the imprinted Arabidopsis thaliana MADS-box TF PHERES1 (PHE1) is a master regulator of paternally expressed imprinted genes, as well as of non-imprinted key regulators of endosperm development. PHE1 binding sites show distinct epigenetic modifications on maternal and paternal alleles, correlating with parental-specific transcriptional activity. Importantly, we show that the CArG-box-like DNA-binding motifs bound by PHE1 have been distributed by RC/Helitron transposable elements. Our data provide an example of molecular domestication of these elements, which by distributing PHE1 binding sites throughout the genome, have facilitated the recruitment of crucial endosperm regulators into a single transcriptional network.