Evolutionary and Experimental Loss of Gene Body Methylation and Its Consequence to Gene Expression.

ABSTRACT: In flowering plants, gene body methylation (gbM) is associated with a subset of constitutively expressed genes. It has been proposed that gbM modulates gene expression. Here, we show that there are no consistent and direct differences to expression following the loss of gbM. By comparing expression of gbM genes in Arabidopsis thaliana accessions to orthologous genes in two Eutrema salsugineum genotypes, we identified both positive and negative expression differences associated with gbM loss. However, expression is largely unaffected by gbM loss in E. salsugineum Expression differences between species were within the variation of expression observed within A. thaliana accessions that displayed variation in gbM. Furthermore, experimentally induced loss of gbM did

SUBMITTER: Bewick AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6686912 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature