MORC proteins regulate transcription factor binding through mediating chromatin compaction at active chromatin regions

The Microrchidia (MORC) family proteins are evolutionarily conserved GHKL type ATPases involved in chromatin compaction and gene silencing. Arabidopsis MORC proteins act in the RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) pathway where they act as molecular tethers to ensure the efficient establishment of RdDM and de novo gene silencing. However, they also have RdDM independent functions in which the underlying mechanism is unknown. In this study, we examined MORC binding regions that are devoid of RdDM to shed light on MORCs RdDM independent functions. We found that MORC proteins can compact chromatin, exclude the accessibility of DNA to transcription factors (TFs) and thereby repress gene expression. We also found that MORC-mediated repression is particularly important under stress conditions. In addition, we showed that MORC proteins may regulate TFs through direct or indirect interactions. These TFs in turn regulate their own transcription, indicating a feedforward loop. Our findings provide insights into the molecular mechanisms of MORC-mediated chromatin compaction and transcription regulation. Overall design: This dataset includes ChIP-seq, RNA-seq, and ATAC-seq to understand the molecular mechanism of Arabidopsis MORC proteins.