Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Kobe University, Kobe, Hyogo 657-8501, Japan.
Centre for Research in Biotechnology for Agriculture, Universiti Malaya, Lembah Pantai, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia.
Int J Mol Sci. 2021 May 21;22(11):5426. doi: 10.3390/ijms22115426.
Methylation systems have been conserved during the divergence of plants and animals, although they are regulated by different pathways and enzymes. However, studies on the interactions of the epigenomes among evolutionarily distant organisms are lacking. To address this, we studied the epigenetic modification and gene expression of plant chromosome fragments (~30 Mb) in a human- hybrid cell line. The whole-genome bisulfite sequencing results demonstrated that recombinant DNA could retain its plant CG methylation levels even without functional plant methyltransferases, indicating that plant DNA methylation states can be maintained even in a different genomic background. The differential methylation analysis showed that the DNA was undermethylated in the centromeric region and repetitive elements. Several genes were still expressed, whereas the expression patterns were not related to the gene function. We concluded that the plant DNA did not maintain the original plant epigenomic landscapes and was under the control of the human genome. This study showed how two diverging genomes can coexist and provided insights into epigenetic modifications and their impact on the regulation of gene expressions between plant and animal genomes.
甲基化系统在植物和动物的分化过程中得到了保守，尽管它们受到不同途径和酶的调控。然而，关于进化上遥远的生物体之间的表观基因组相互作用的研究还很缺乏。为了解决这个问题，我们研究了人类杂交细胞系中植物染色体片段（约 30Mb）的表观遗传修饰和基因表达。全基因组亚硫酸氢盐测序结果表明，重组 DNA 即使没有功能的植物甲基转移酶，也能保持其植物 CG 甲基化水平，这表明植物 DNA 甲基化状态即使在不同的基因组背景下也能维持。差异甲基化分析表明，DNA 在着丝粒区域和重复元件中被低度甲基化。一些基因仍在表达，但其表达模式与基因功能无关。我们得出结论，植物 DNA 没有维持原始的植物表观基因组景观，而是受到人类基因组的控制。这项研究展示了两个分化的基因组如何共存，并深入了解了表观遗传修饰及其对植物和动物基因组之间基因表达调控的影响。
