DNA methylation and genome evolution in honeybee: gene length, expression, functional enrichment covary with the evolutionary signature of DNA methylation.

ABSTRACT: A growing body of evidence suggests that DNA methylation is functionally divergent among different taxa. The recently discovered functional methylation system in the honeybee Apis mellifera presents an attractive invertebrate model system to study evolution and function of DNA methylation. In the honeybee, DNA methylation is mostly targeted toward transcription units (gene bodies) of a subset of genes. Here, we report an intriguing covariation of length and epigenetic status of honeybee genes. Hypermethylated and hypomethylated genes in honeybee are dramatically different in their lengths for both exons and introns. By analyzing orthologs in Drosophila melanogaster, Acyrthosiphon pisum, and Ciona intestinalis, we show genes that were short and long in the past are now preferentially situat

SUBMITTER: Zeng J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2975444 | biostudies-literature | 2010

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature