Back

Polycomb repression works without Siesta

Kahn, T. G.; Garrido, A.; Yushkova, A.; Kim, M.; Glotov, A.; Sreekumar, S.; Larsson, J.; Schwartz, Y. B.

2025-07-18 genetics
10.1101/2025.07.18.664654 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Polycomb group proteins mediate epigenetic repression via multi-subunit complexes, including canonical Polycomb Repressive Complex 1 (PRC1), which monoubiquitylates histone H2A and binds histone H3 tri-methylated at lysine 27 (H3K27me3). The RING1 subunit of PRC1, critical for H2A ubiquitylation, forms other complexes. These variant RING1 complexes also ubiquitylate H2A but cannot bind H3K27me3, and their evolutionary origins and functions are debated. Using Drosophila genetics, we discovered that canonical PRC1 and variant RING1 complexes ubiquitylate H2A at distinct genomic regions. We established that the sole Drosophila PCGF protein specific for variant RING1 complexes, which we named Siesta, is not required for epigenetic repression of developmental genes, but controls larval locomotion independently of H2A ubiquitylation. Leveraging a massively parallel transgenic approach, we demonstrated that H2A ubiquitylation has minimal impact on transcriptional repression. Our findings imply that variant RING1 complexes operate outside the Polycomb regulatory system and that the popular PRC1 nomenclature needs revision.

Matching journals

The top 4 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

1
eLife
● 5828 papers in training set
Top 2%
25.7%
Similar papers in this journal
2
Genes & Development
● 90 papers in training set
Top 0.1%
11.5%
Similar papers in this journal
3
PLOS Genetics
● 862 papers in training set
Top 1%
7.6%
Similar papers in this journal
4
GENETICS
◐ 483 papers in training set
Top 0.9%
6.1%
Similar papers in this journal
50% of probability mass above
5
EMBO Reports
○ 263 papers in training set
Top 0.8%
4.7%
Similar papers in this journal
6
Nature Communications
○ 5641 papers in training set
Top 31%
4.2%
7
Nucleic Acids Research
◐ 1281 papers in training set
Top 5%
3.9%
8
Cell Reports
○ 1498 papers in training set
Top 13%
3.1%
9
Genome Research
● 468 papers in training set
Top 2%
3.1%
10
G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics
◐ 252 papers in training set
Top 2%
2.6%
11
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
● 2444 papers in training set
Top 22%
2.3%
12
Development
● 497 papers in training set
Top 3%
2.3%
13
Life Science Alliance
● 285 papers in training set
Top 3%
2.1%
14
The Plant Cell
◐ 161 papers in training set
Top 2%
1.7%
15
The EMBO Journal
○ 309 papers in training set
Top 4%
1.3%
16
iScience
○ 1154 papers in training set
Top 29%
1.1%
17
Journal of Cell Science
● 393 papers in training set
Top 4%
1.1%
18
G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics
◐ 351 papers in training set
Top 3%
1.1%
19
Chromosome Research
○ 18 papers in training set
Top 0.2%
1.0%
20
Molecular Systems Biology
○ 162 papers in training set
Top 3%
1.0%
21
Science Advances
● 1243 papers in training set
Top 29%
1.0%
22
PLOS Biology
● 486 papers in training set
Top 12%
0.8%
23
Scientific Reports
○ 3612 papers in training set
Top 79%
0.6%
24
Molecular Biology and Evolution
◐ 542 papers in training set
Top 6%
0.6%
25
Biology Open
● 156 papers in training set
Top 5%
0.6%
26
Human Molecular Genetics
◐ 141 papers in training set
Top 4%
0.6%
27
BMC Biology
○ 265 papers in training set
Top 7%
0.6%
28
Epigenetics & Chromatin
52 papers in training set
Top 0.9%
0.5%

"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.