TY  - JOUR
A1  - Takayama, Sachiko
A1  - Dhahbi, Joseph
A1  - Roberts, Adam
A1  - Mao, Guanxiong
A1  - Heo, Seok-Jin
A1  - Pachter, Lior
A1  - Martin, David
A1  - Boffelli, Dario
T1  - Genome methylation in D. melanogaster is found at specific short motifs and is independent of DNMT2 activity
Y1  - 2014/02/20 
JF  - Genome Research 
JO  - Genome Research 
DO  - 10.1101/gr.162412.113 
SP  - gr.162412.113 
UR  - http://genome.cshlp.org/content/early/2014/02/20/gr.162412.113.abstract 
N2  - Cytosine methylation in the genome of Drosophila melanogaster has been elusive and controversial: its location and function have not been established. We have used a novel and highly sensitive genome-wide cytosine methylation assay to detect and map genome methylation in Stage 5 Drosophila embryos. The methylation we observe with this method is highly localized and strand-asymmetrical, limited to regions covering ~1% of the genome, dynamic in early embryogenesis, and concentrated in specific 5-base sequence motifs that are CA- and CT-rich but depleted of guanine. Gene body methylation is associated with lower expression, and many genes containing methylated regions have developmental or transcriptional functions. The only known DNA methyltransferase in Drosophila is DNMT2, but lines deficient for DNMT2 retain genomic methylation, implying the presence of a novel methyltransferase. The association of methylation with lower expression of specific developmental genes at Stage 5 raises the possibility that it participates in controlling gene expression during the maternal-zygotic transition. 
ER  -