Author Correction: DNA polymerase epsilon is required for heterochromatin maintenance in Arabidopsis

Author Correction: Genome Biol 21, 283 (2020)

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-020–02190-1

Following publication of the original article [1], the authors identified a nomenclature error in the labelling of Fig. S6A. The plant image originally labelled pol2a-6 should be corrected to pol2a-12. During the study, the authors initially referred to the pol2a mutant allele anx2 as pol2a-6 but renumbered it as pol2a-12 prior to publication following a careful review of existing nomenclature. A complete list of pol2a mutant alleles is provided in Table S1 for further clarification.

The incorrect Fig. S6A is given below.

The correct Fig. S6A is given below.

Additionally, the authors wish to clarify that Fig. S6A and Fig. S8D display images of the exact same wild-type (Col-0) and pol2a-12 plants, which were grown side-by-side in the same experiment. These same control individuals were utilized as standardized baselines for both the fas2-4 mutant (Fig. S6A) and the pol2a-12 cmt3-11 double mutant (Fig. S8D). This reuse of control individuals, while experimentally consistent, should have been explicitly stated in the original legends. The corrected figure legends are provided below.

Figure S6. Comparison of pol2a and fas2 molecular phenotypes

A Photos of 21-d-old plants. Scale bar: 1cm. Note that the Col-0 and pol2a-12 images are the same individuals shown in Fig. S8D, as these plants were grown side-by-side and served as common controls for both experiments. B Metaplots showing methylation rates in CG, CHG and CHH contexts in fas2-4 mutants at all TEs (data from Mozgova et al. 2018). Annotations were aligned to their 5’ or 3’ end and average methylation was calculated for each 100-bp bin from 3 kb upstream to 3 kb downstream. C Average methylation levels in CHG subcontexts in the indicated samples, excluding positions unmethylated in both the WT and mutant samples in each comparison. D Venn diagrams showing the overlap between TEs and PCGs upregulated in pol2a-12 and fas2-4. E Relative heterochromatic fraction (left), area of chromocenters normalized to the entire nucleus area (middle) and number of chromocenters per nucleus (right) quantified on DAPI-stained nuclei in WT and fas2-4. The number of nuclei analyzed is indicated on top. P-values from an unpaired two-sided Student’s t-test are indicated. F DAPI-stained nuclei extracted from WT and fas2-4 plants. Scale bar: 5 µm.

Figure S8. Characterization of pol2a cmt3 double mutants

A TE methylation changes in CHH context in pol2a-12 and pol2a cmt3 normalized to WT and cmt3, respectively. Annotations were aligned to their 5’ or 3’ end and average methylation was calculated for each 100-bp bin from 3 kb upstream to 3 kb downstream. B-C Transcript accumulation in reads per kilobase per million mapped reads (RPKM) in indicated genotypes. The effect of genotype was verified with a Kruskal–Wallis rank sum test. Significant differences between groups were evaluated by a Dwass-Steel-Crichtlow-Fligner test and are indicated by lowercase letters (P < 5e-10 in B, P < 5e-2 in C). D Representative pictures showing 21-day-old plantlets of the indicated genotypes. Scale bar: 1cm. Note that the Col-0 and pol2a-12 images are the same individuals shown in Fig. S8D, as these plants were grown side-by-side and served as common controls for both experiments.

These corrections do not alter the scientific conclusions of the study. The original article [1] has been corrected.