Functional conservation of DNA methylation in the pea aphid and the honeybee.

ABSTRACT: DNA methylation is a fundamental epigenetic mark known to have wide-ranging effects on gene regulation in a variety of animal taxa. Comparative genomic analyses can help elucidate the function of DNA methylation by identifying conserved features of methylated genes and other genomic regions. In this study, we used computational approaches to distinguish genes marked by heavy methylation from those marked by little or no methylation in the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum. We investigated if these two classes had distinct evolutionary histories and functional roles by conducting comparative analysis with the honeybee, Apis (Ap.) mellifera. We found that highly methylated orthologs in A. pisum and Ap. mellifera exhibited greater conservation of methylation status, suggesting that highly methyl

SUBMITTER: Hunt BG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2962555 | biostudies-literature | 2010

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature