Palacios G, Martin-Gonzalez A, Gutierrez J C
Departamento de Microbiología-III, Facultad de Biología, Universidad Complutense (UCM), Madrid, Spain.
Cell Biol Int. 1994 Apr;18(4):223-8. doi: 10.1006/cbir.1994.1067.
Ciliate encystment is an eukaryotic cell differentiation process which involves a specific gene expression, to form the resting stage. In this study, we investigate, for first time, the DNA methylation pattern changes during encystment in the ciliate Colpoda inflata, and the 5-azacytidine effect on growing cells and encystment. Results indicate that 5-methylcytosine is present in macronuclear DNA of this ciliate and the 5-azacytidine treatment induces encystment in growth conditions. From restriction enzyme digestion and 5-azacytidine experiments, we conclude that a specific DNA demethylation is probably involved in the encystment gene expression of this ciliate.
纤毛虫包囊化是一个真核细胞分化过程，涉及特定的基因表达，以形成静止期。在本研究中，我们首次研究了膨胀肾形虫在包囊化过程中的DNA甲基化模式变化，以及5-氮杂胞苷对生长细胞和包囊化的影响。结果表明，这种纤毛虫的大核DNA中存在5-甲基胞嘧啶，5-氮杂胞苷处理可在生长条件下诱导包囊化。通过限制性酶切消化和5-氮杂胞苷实验，我们得出结论，特定的DNA去甲基化可能参与了这种纤毛虫的包囊化基因表达。
