Martin C, Prescott A, Lister C, MacKay S
John Innes Institute, Norwich, UK.
EMBO J. 1989 Apr;8(4):997-1004. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1989.tb03466.x.
The transposon Tam3 from Antirrhinum majus can transpose in a heterologous host (Nicotiana tabacum); thus the element is autonomous, probably encoding the specific information required for its own transposition. In transgenic tobacco Tam3 rapidly becomes methylated at its ends whilst adjacent flanking sequences remain hypomethylated. This methylation may account for our failure to detect Tam3 transposition in the progeny of transgenic tobacco. Treatment with the inhibitor of cytosine methylation, 5 aza-cytosine appeared to induce transposon related activity at a low level. In Antirrhinum methylation also appears to be associated with inactivation of Tam3 copies.
来自金鱼草的转座子Tam3能够在异源宿主（烟草）中进行转座；因此，该元件是自主的，可能编码自身转座所需的特定信息。在转基因烟草中，Tam3在其末端迅速发生甲基化，而相邻的侧翼序列仍保持低甲基化状态。这种甲基化可能是我们未能在转基因烟草后代中检测到Tam3转座的原因。用胞嘧啶甲基化抑制剂5-氮杂胞嘧啶处理似乎能在低水平上诱导转座子相关活性。在金鱼草中，甲基化似乎也与Tam3拷贝的失活有关。
