RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 DEK influences the trade-off between growth and arrest via H2A.Z-nucleosomes in Arabidopsis JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 829226 DO 10.1101/829226 A1 Anna Brestovitsky A1 Daphne Ezer A1 Sascha Waidmann A1 Sarah L. Maslen A1 Martin Balcerowicz A1 Sandra Cortijo A1 Varodom Charoensawan A1 Claudia Martinho A1 Daniela Rhodes A1 Claudia Jonak A1 Philip A Wigge YR 2019 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/11/04/829226.abstract AB The decision of whether to grow and proliferate or to restrict growth and develop resilience to stress is a key biological trade-off. In plants, constitutive growth results in increased sensitivity to environmental stress1,2. The underlying mechanisms controlling this decision are however not well understood. We used temperature as a cue to discover regulators of this process in plants, as it both enhances growth and development rates within a specific range and is also a stress at extremes. We found that the conserved chromatin-associated protein DEK plays a central role in balancing the response between growth and arrest in Arabidopsis, and it does this via H2A.Z-nucleosomes. DEK target genes show two distinct categories of chromatin architecture based on the distribution of H2A.Z in +1 nucleosome and gene body, and these predict induction or repression by DEK. We show that these chromatin signatures of DEK target genes are conserved in human cells, suggesting that DEK may act through an evolutionarily conserved mechanism to control the balance between growth and arrest in plants and animals.