LHP1 Regulates H3K27me3 Spreading and Shapes the Three-Dimensional Conformation of the Arabidopsis Genome

Precise expression patterns of genes in time and space are essential for proper development of multicellular organisms. Dynamic chromatin conformation and spatial organization of the genome constitute a major step in this regulation to modulate developmental outputs. Polycomb repressive complexes (PRCs) mediate stable or flexible gene repression in response to internal and environmental cues. In Arabidopsis thaliana, LHP1 co-localizes with H3K27me3 epigenetic marks throughout the genome and interacts with PRC1 and PRC2 members as well as with a long noncoding RNA. Here, we show that LHP1 is responsible for the spreading of H3K27me3 towards the 3' end of the gene body. We also identified a subset of LHP1-activated genes and demonstrated that LHP1 shapes local chromatin topology in order to control transcriptional co-regulation. Our work reveals a general role of LHP1 from local to higher conformation levels of chromatin configuration to determine its accessibility to define gene expression patterns.