WIKIMEDIA, CHRISTOPH BOCK
The epigenetic mark of DNA methylation, once thought to be rare if not nonexistent in worms and flies, occurs throughout the genomes of these organisms and in algae on the base adenine, not the cytosine known to be modified in mammals, according to a trio of papers published today (April 30) in Cell.
The results are “mysterious and exciting,” said Josep Casadesús of the University of Seville, Spain, who was not involved in the work. “The secret of these three Cell papers is that now there are technologies that can detect very low levels [of methylation] that were impossible to detect with the old methods.”
In bacteria, 6mA marks the template strand during DNA replication, enabling a cell to spot errors and regulate the cell ...
