TY - JOUR AB - DNA methylation regulates eukaryotic gene expression and is extensively reprogrammed during animal development. However, whether developmental methylation reprogramming during the sporophytic life cycle of flowering plants regulates genes is presently unknown. Here we report a distinctive gene-targeted RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) activity in the Arabidopsis thaliana male sexual lineage that regulates gene expression in meiocytes. Loss of sexual-lineage-specific RdDM causes mis-splicing of the MPS1 gene (also known as PRD2), thereby disrupting meiosis. Our results establish a regulatory paradigm in which de novo methylation creates a cell-lineage-specific epigenetic signature that controls gene expression and contributes to cellular function in flowering plants. AU - Walker, James AU - Gao, Hongbo AU - Zhang, Jingyi AU - Aldridge, Billy AU - Vickers, Martin AU - Higgins, James D. AU - Feng, Xiaoqi ID - 12193 IS - 1 JF - Nature Genetics KW - Genetics SN - 1061-4036 TI - Sexual-lineage-specific DNA methylation regulates meiosis in Arabidopsis VL - 50 ER -