Pintor-Toro J A
Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología, C.S.I.C., Sevilla, Spain.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1987 Sep 30;147(3):1082-7. doi: 10.1016/s0006-291x(87)80181-x.
This paper reports the novel finding of adenine methylation in higher plants. Comparison of restriction patterns of genomic maize DNA digested with enzymes MboI and Sau3A enabled us to detect the existence of adenine methylation in zein genes. Adenine methylation within or around zein genes turned out to be similar in endosperm (where zeins are actively synthesized) and in seedling tissue (where zein genes are not expressed). Furthermore, adenine methylation patterns were found to be similar both in wild-type and opaque-2 mutant plants. These lines of evidence suggest that adenine methylation is unrelated to the regulation of gene expression.
本文报道了高等植物中腺嘌呤甲基化这一全新发现。用MboI和Sau3A酶消化玉米基因组DNA后，对其限制性酶切图谱进行比较，使我们能够检测到醇溶蛋白基因中腺嘌呤甲基化的存在。结果表明，醇溶蛋白基因内部或周围的腺嘌呤甲基化在胚乳（醇溶蛋白在此处活跃合成）和幼苗组织（醇溶蛋白基因在此处不表达）中相似。此外，在野生型和不透明-2突变体植物中发现腺嘌呤甲基化模式相似。这些证据表明，腺嘌呤甲基化与基因表达调控无关。
