Constitutive heterochromatin can promote piRNA transcription, a crucial step in genome defense. Two studies now show that piRNA transcription in Drosophila is regulated by the dual histone marks H3K27me3 and H3K9me3, and piRNA transcription in Caenorhabditis elegans is enhanced by H3K27me3, gene clustering and phase separation.
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Acknowledgements
G.C. has received funding from the Institut Pasteur, the CNRS and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement number 101002999. A.M.L.R. received funding from the European Union under the HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01 program no. 101109836 — MOMENTS.
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Rojas, A.M.L., Cecere, G. H3K27me3 expands the epigenetic control of piRNA transcription. Nat Struct Mol Biol 32, 1322–1324 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-025-01572-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-025-01572-y
