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PMID: 9032274 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Methylation of genomes and genes at the invertebrate-vertebrate boundary.

Molecular and cellular biology ·Vol. 17 ·No. 3 ·1997-03-00 ·Pages 1469-75

Tweedie S, Charlton J, Clark V, Bird A

Abstract

Patterns of DNA methylation in animal genomes are known to vary from an apparent absence of modified bases, via methylation of a minor fraction of the genome, to genome-wide methylation. Representative genomes from 10 invertebrate phyla comprise predominantly nonmethylated DNA and (usually but not always) a minor fraction of methylated DNA. In contrast, all 27 vertebrate genomes that have been examined display genome-wide methylation. Our studies of chordate genomes suggest that the transition from fractional to global methylation occurred close to the origin of vertebrates, as amphioxus has a typically invertebrate methylation pattern whereas primitive vertebrates (hagfish and lamprey) have patterns that are typical of vertebrates. Surprisingly, methylation of genes preceded this transition, as many invertebrate genes have turned out to be heavily methylated. Methylation does not preferentially affect genes whose expression is highly regulated, as several housekeeping genes are found in the heavily methylated fraction whereas several genes expressed in a tissue-specific manner are in the nonmethylated fraction.

MeSH Terms
Animals DNA Methylation DNA, Ribosomal/genetics Genes/genetics Genome Invertebrates/genetics Molecular Sequence Data RNA, Ribosomal, 18S/genetics RNA, Ribosomal, 28S/genetics Vertebrates/genetics
Chemicals
DNA, Ribosomal RNA, Ribosomal, 18S RNA, Ribosomal, 28S
Authors & Affiliations
4 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Tweedie S
Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom. stweedie@srv0.bio.ed.ac.uk
Charlton J
Clark V
Bird A
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Article Info
Journal
Molecular and cellular biology
Abbr.
Mol Cell Biol
ISSN
0270-7306
DOI
10.1128/MCB.17.3.1469
Email
stweedie@srv0.bio.ed.ac.uk
Published
1997-03-00
Pages
1469-75
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
8109087
PMCID
PMC231872
Subset
IM
Grants
Wellcome Trust · United Kingdom
Databases
GENBANK
Z83259, Z83260, Z83261, Z83262, Z83263, Z83264, Z83265, Z83266, Z83267, Z83268, Z83269, Z83270, Z83271, Z83272, Z83273, Z83274, Z83275, Z83276, Z83277, Z83278, Z83279, Z83280, Z83281, Z83282, Z83283
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1128/MCB.17.3.1469 PMC Full Text View journal details
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