Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Methylation of a euchromatin-heterochromatin transition region in Arabidopsis thaliana chromosome 5 left arm

  • Published:
Chromosome Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Cytosine methylation was studied at the level of the euchromatin/heterochromatin transition genomic region of the Arabidopsis chromosome 5 left arm. It has been shown using a monoclonal antibody against 5-methylcytosines that the density of DNA methylation increases from the euchromatin towards the heterochromatin. YACs mapped along this region were characterized for their repeated sequences content. Some of them, corresponding to euchromatin, euchromatin/heterochromatin border and heterochromatin regions, were used as probes for a Southern blot analysis of methylation. This revealed that the degree of mCmCGG and GATmC methylation increases significantly from the euchromatin towards the heterochromatin. Moreover, an analysis of cytosine methylation levels (% of 5-methylcytosine) of different DNA fragments, inside the same genomic region, was performed using PCR and/or Southern blot approaches. There is a gradual increase of methylation along the genomic region analyzed: CpG methylation in the euchromatic fraction, CpG and CpNpG methylation at the euchromatin/heterochromatin transition and an additional asymmetrical methylation in the repeated-heterochromatic fraction. The most methylated repeated family at CpG, CpNpG and asymmetrical sites is the 5S ribosomal DNA, highly methylated even though it is transcribed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • AGI (2000) Analysis of the genome sequence of the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Nature 408: 796-815.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bartee L, Malagnac F, Bender J (2001) Arabidopsis cmt3 chromomethylase mutations block non-CG methylation and silencing of an endogenous gene. Genes Dev 15: 1753-1758.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bender J (1998) Cytosine methylation of repeated sequences in eukaryotes: the role of DNA pairing. Trends Biochem Sci 23: 252-256.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bird AP (1986) CpG-rich islands and the function of DNA methylation. Nature 321: 209-213.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Boyes J, Bird A (1991) DNA methylation inhibits transcription indirectly via a methyl-CpG binding protein. Cell 64: 1123-1134.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brandes A, Thompson H, Dean C, Heslop-Harrison JS (1997) Multiple repetitive DNA sequences in the paracentromeric regions of Arabidopsis thaliana. Chromosome Res 5: 238-246.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Burke DT, Carle GF, Olson MV (1987) Cloning of large segments of exogenous DNA into yeast by means of artificial chromosome vectors. Science 236: 806-812.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Campell BR, Soung Y, Posch TE, Cullis CA, Town CD (1992) Sequence and organization of 5S ribosomal RNA-encoding genes of Arabidopsis thaliana. Gene 112: 225-228.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Creusot F, Fouilloux E, Dron M et al.(1995) The CIC library: a large insert YAC library for genome mapping in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant J 8: 763-770.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Doyle JJ, Doyle JL (1987) A rapid DNA isolation procedure for small quantities of fresh tissue. Phytochem Bull 19: 11-15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finnegan EJ, Genger RK, Peacock WJ, Dennis ES (1998) DNA methylation in plants. Plant Mol Biol 49: 223-247.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fransz P, Armstrong S, Alonso-Blanco C, Fisher TC, Torres-Ruiz RA, Jones G (1998) Cytogenetics for the model system Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant J 13: 867-876.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fulnecek J, Matyasek R, Kovarik A, Bezdek M (1998) Mapping of 5-methylcytosine residues in Nicotiana tabacum 5S rRNA genes by genomic sequencing. Mol Gen Genet 259: 133-141.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Goubely C, Arnaud P, Tatout C, Heslop-Harrison JS, Deragon JM(1999) S1 SINE retroposons are methylated at symmetrical and non-symmetrical positions in Brassica napus: identi-fication of a preferred target site for asymmetrical methylation. Plant Mol Biol 39: 243-255.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jeddeloh JA, Richards EJ (1996) mCCG methylation in angiosperms. Plant J 9: 579-586.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Keshet I, Yisraeli J, Cedar H (1986) DNA methylation a¡ects the formation of active chromatin. Cell 44: 535-543.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kotani H, Hosouchi T, Tsuruoka H (1999) Structural analysis and complete physical map of Arabidopsis thaliana chromosome 5 including centromeric and telomeric regions. DNA Res 6: 381-386.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kovarik A, Matyasek R, Leitch A, Gazdova B, Fulnecek J, Bezdek M (1997) Variability in CpNpG methylation in higher plant genomes. Gene 204: 25-33.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kovarik A, Koukalova B, Lim KY et al. (2000) Comparative analysis of DNA methylation in tobacco heterochromatic sequences. Chromosome Res 8: 527-541.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Leutwiler LS, Hough-Evans BR, Meyerowitz EM (1984) The DNA of Arabidopsis thaliana. Mol Gen Genet 194: 15-23.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lindroth AM, Cao X, Jackson JP et al. (2001) Requirement of chromomethylase3 for maintenance of CpXpG methylation. Science 292: 2077-2080.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lyon MF (1992) Some milestones in the history of X chromosome inactivation. Annu Rev Genet 26: 16-28.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Martienssen RA, Colot V (2001) DNA methylation and epigenetic inheritance in plants and filamentous fungi. Science 293: 1070-1073.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Martinez-Zapater JM, Estelle MA, Somerville CR (1986) A highly repeated DNA sequence in Arabidopsis thaliana. Mol Gen Genet 204: 417-423.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mathieu O, Yukawa Y, Sugiura M, Picard G, Tourmente S (2002) 5S rRNA gene expression is not inhibited by DNA methylation in Arabidopsis. Plant J 29: 313-323.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Meyerowitz EM (1992) Introduction to the Arabidopsis genome. In: Koncz C, Chua NH, Schell J, eds. Methods in Arabidopsis Research. Singapore: WorldScientificPublishing, pp100-118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murata M, Heslop-Harrison J, Motoyoshi F (1997) Physical mapping of the 5S ribosomal RNA genes in Arabidopsis thaliana by multi-color fluorescence in situ hybridization with cosmid clones. Plant J 12: 31-37.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pélissier T, Tutois S, Deragon JM, Tourmente S, Genestier S, Picard G (1995) Athila, a new retroelement from Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Mol Biol 29: 441-452.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Peyret P, Perez P, Alric M (1995) Structure, genomic organization and expression of the Arabidopsis thaliana aconitase gene. J Biol Chem 270: 8131-8137.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Razin A, Cedar H (1994) DNA methylation and genomic imprinting. Cell 77: 473-476.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ronemus MJ, Galbiati M, Ticknor C, Chen J, Dellaporta SL (1996) Demethylation-induced developmental pleiotropy in Arabidopsis. Science 273: 654-657.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ross KJ, Fransz P, Jones GH (1996) A light microscopic atlas of meiosis in Arabidopsis thaliana. Chromosome Res 4: 507-516.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Round EK, Flowers SK, Richards EJ (1997) Arabidopsis thaliana centromere regions: genetic map positions and repetitive DNA structure. Genome Res 7: 1045-1053.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sorensen MB, Muller M, Skerritt J, Simpson D (1996) Hordein promoter methylation and transcriptional activity in wild-type and mutant barley endosperm. Mol Gen Genet 250: 750-760.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson HL, Schmidt R, Dean C (1996) Identification and distribution of seven classes of middle-repetitive DNA in the Arabidopsis thaliana genome. Nucl Acids Res 24: 3017-3022.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tutois S, Cloix C, Cuvillier C et al.(1999) Structural analysis and physical mapping of a pericentromeric region of chromosome 5 of Arabidopsis thaliana. Chromosome Res 6: 1-14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vongs A, Kakutani T, Martienssen RA, Richards EJ (1993) Arabidopsis thaliana DNA methylation mutants. Science 260: 1926-1928.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vyskot B, Koukalovat B, Kovarik A, Sachambula L, Reynolds D, Bezdek M (1995) Meiotic transmission of a hypomethylated repetitive DNA family in tobacco. Theor Appl Genet 91: 659-664.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner I, Capesius I (1981) Determination of 5-methylcytosine from plant DNA by high-performance liquid chromatography. Biochim Biophys Acta 654: 52-56.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yoder JA, Walsh CP, Bestor TH (1997) Cytosine methylation and the ecology of intragenomic parasites. Trends Genet 13: 335-340.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. U.M.R. CNRS 6547 BIOMOVE, Université Blaise Pascal, 24 Avenue des Landais, 63177, Aubière Cedex, France

    Olivier Mathieu, Georges Picard & Sylvette Tourmente

Authors
  1. Olivier Mathieu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Georges Picard
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Sylvette Tourmente
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Mathieu, O., Picard, G. & Tourmente, S. Methylation of a euchromatin-heterochromatin transition region in Arabidopsis thaliana chromosome 5 left arm. Chromosome Res 10, 455–466 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020936229771

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020936229771

Search

Navigation