TY - JOUR TI - HDAC1 SUMOylation promotes Argonaute-directed transcriptional silencing in C. elegans AU - Kim, Heesun AU - Ding, Yue-He AU - Zhang, Gangming AU - Yan, Yong-Hong AU - Conte, Darryl, Jr AU - Dong, Meng-Qiu AU - Mello, Craig C A2 - Hunter, Tony A2 - Struhl, Kevin A2 - Hunter, Tony A2 - Pelisch, Federico VL - 10 PY - 2021 DA - 2021/05/18 SP - e63299 C1 - eLife 2021;10:e63299 DO - 10.7554/eLife.63299 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.63299 AB - Eukaryotic cells use guided search to coordinately control dispersed genetic elements. Argonaute proteins and their small RNA cofactors engage nascent RNAs and chromatin-associated proteins to direct transcriptional silencing. The small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) has been shown to promote the formation and maintenance of silent chromatin (called heterochromatin) in yeast, plants, and animals. Here, we show that Argonaute-directed transcriptional silencing in Caenorhabditis elegans requires SUMOylation of the type 1 histone deacetylase HDA-1. Our findings suggest how SUMOylation promotes the association of HDAC1 with chromatin remodeling factors and with a nuclear Argonaute to initiate de novo heterochromatin silencing. KW - HDAC SUMOylation KW - nuclear argonaut KW - germline JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -