Extrachromosomal homologous DNA recombination in plant cells is fast and is not affected by CpG methylation.

Using a sensitive transient assay, we investigated extrachromosomal homologous DNA recombination (ECR) in plant cells. As the plant genome is highly C methylated, we addressed the question of whether CpG methylation has an influence on DNA recombination efficiencies. Whereas the expression level of the fully CpG-methylated DNA molecules was reduced drastically, we found no significant changes in ECR efficiencies between two partly CpG-methylated plasmids or between one fully CpG-methylated and one nonmethylated plasmid. Using a modified polymerase chain reaction analysis, we were able to detect recombination between two fully CpG-methylated plasmids. Furthermore, we characterized the kinetics of the ECR reaction. Cotransfection of plasmids carrying truncated copies of the beta-glucuronidase (GUS) gene resulted in enzyme activity with a delay of only half an hour compared with that of the plasmid carrying the functional marker gene. This indicates that the ECR reaction itself requires no more than 30 min. By polymerase chain reaction, we were able to detect the recombined GUS gene as early as 2 h after transfection. This result and the time course of the transient GUS activity indicate that ECR occurs mainly early after transfection. The biological significance of this finding is discussed, and properties of ECR and intrachromosomal recombination are compared.