RT Journal
A1 Rabinowicz, Pablo D.
A1 Palmer, Lance E.
A1 May, Bruce P.
A1 Hemann, Michael T.
A1 Lowe, Scott W.
A1 McCombie, W. Richard
A1 Martienssen, Robert A.
T1 Genes and Transposons Are Differentially Methylated in Plants, but Not in Mammals
JF Genome Research 
JO Genome Research 
YR 2003 
FD December 01 
VO 13 
IS 12 
SP 2658 
OP 2664 
DO 10.1101/gr.1784803 
UL http://genome.cshlp.org/content/13/12/2658.abstract 
AB DNA methylation is found in many eukaryotes, but its function is still controversial. We have studied the methylation of plant and animal genomes using a PCR-based technique amenable for high throughput. Repetitive elements are methylated in both organisms, but whereas most mammalian exons are methylated, plant exons are not. Thus, targeting of methylation specifically to transposons appears to be restricted to plants. We propose that the mechanistic basis of this difference may involve RNA interference. Sequencing strategies that depend on differential methylation are predicted to have different outcomes in plant and mammalian genomes.