Skip to main content
PMC home page
Journal of Bacteriology logoLink to Journal of Bacteriology
. 1985 Oct;164(1):19–24. doi: 10.1128/jb.164.1.19-24.1985

Procaryotic and eucaryotic traits of DNA methylation in spiroplasmas (mycoplasmas).

I Nur, M Szyf, A Razin, G Glaser, S Rottem, S Razin
PMCID: PMC214205  PMID: 4044519

Abstract

Differences in the type of base methylated (cytosine or adenine) and in the extent of methylation were detected by high-pressure liquid chromatography in the DNAs of five spiroplasmas. Nearest neighbor analysis and digestion by restriction enzyme isoschizomers also revealed differences in methylation sequence specificity. Whereas in Spiroplasma floricola and Spiroplasma sp. strain PPS-1 5-methylcytosine was found on the 5' side of each of the four major bases, the cytosine in Spiroplasma apis DNA was methylated only when its 3' neighboring base was adenine or thymine. In Spiroplasma sp. strain MQ-1 over 95% of the methylated cytosine was in C-G sequences. Essentially all of the C-G sequences in the MQ-1 DNA were methylated. Partially purified extracts of S. apis and Spiroplasma sp. strain MQ-1 were used to study substrate and sequence specificity of the methylase activity. Methylation by the MQ-1 enzyme was exclusively at C-G sequences, resembling in this respect eucaryotic DNA methylases. However, the MQ-1 methylase differed from eucaryotic methylases by showing high activity on nonmethylated DNA duplexes, low activity with hemimethylated DNA duplexes, and no activity on single-stranded DNA.

Full text

PDF
19

Images in this article

21Image
on p.21
21Image
on p.21
21Image
on p.21
22Image
on p.22
22Image
on p.22

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bestor T. H., Ingram V. M. Two DNA methyltransferases from murine erythroleukemia cells: purification, sequence specificity, and mode of interaction with DNA. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 Sep;80(18):5559–5563. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.18.5559. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bird A. P. DNA methylation--how important in gene control? Nature. 1984 Feb 9;307(5951):503–504. doi: 10.1038/307503a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bové J. M., Saillard C., Junca P., DeGorce-Dumas J. R., Ricard B., Nhami A., Whitcomb R. F., Williamson D., Tully J. G. Guanine-plus-cytosine content, hybridization percentages, and EcoRI restriction enzyme profiles of spiroplasmal DNA. Rev Infect Dis. 1982 May-Jun;4 (Suppl):S129–S136. doi: 10.1093/clinids/4.supplement_1.s129. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Busslinger M., Hurst J., Flavell R. A. DNA methylation and the regulation of globin gene expression. Cell. 1983 Aug;34(1):197–206. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90150-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Dybvig K., Swinton D., Maniloff J., Hattman S. Cytosine methylation of the sequence GATC in a mycoplasma. J Bacteriol. 1982 Sep;151(3):1420–1424. doi: 10.1128/jb.151.3.1420-1424.1982. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Gruenbaum Y., Stein R., Cedar H., Razin A. Methylation of CpG sequences in eukaryotic DNA. FEBS Lett. 1981 Feb 9;124(1):67–71. doi: 10.1016/0014-5793(81)80055-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Honigman A., Kronman C., Nur I., Greenberg N., Rottem S. Cloning of L-2 DNA in Escherichia coli pOL4 plasmid. Isr J Med Sci. 1984 Sep;20(9):793–796. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Maniloff J. Evolution of wall-less prokaryotes. Annu Rev Microbiol. 1983;37:477–499. doi: 10.1146/annurev.mi.37.100183.002401. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Morowitz H. J. The completeness of molecular biology. Isr J Med Sci. 1984 Sep;20(9):750–753. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Pukkila P. J., Peterson J., Herman G., Modrich P., Meselson M. Effects of high levels of DNA adenine methylation on methyl-directed mismatch repair in Escherichia coli. Genetics. 1983 Aug;104(4):571–582. doi: 10.1093/genetics/104.4.571. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Razin A., Friedman J. DNA methylation and its possible biological roles. Prog Nucleic Acid Res Mol Biol. 1981;25:33–52. doi: 10.1016/s0079-6603(08)60482-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Razin A., Razin S. Methylated bases in mycoplasmal DNA. Nucleic Acids Res. 1980 Mar 25;8(6):1383–1390. doi: 10.1093/nar/8.6.1383. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Razin A., Riggs A. D. DNA methylation and gene function. Science. 1980 Nov 7;210(4470):604–610. doi: 10.1126/science.6254144. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Razin A., Szyf M. DNA methylation patterns. Formation and function. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1984 Sep 10;782(4):331–342. doi: 10.1016/0167-4781(84)90043-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Rogers M. J., Simmons J., Walker R. T., Weisburg W. G., Woese C. R., Tanner R. S., Robinson I. M., Stahl D. A., Olsen G., Leach R. H. Construction of the mycoplasma evolutionary tree from 5S rRNA sequence data. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Feb;82(4):1160–1164. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.4.1160. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Russell G. J., McGeoch D. J., Elton R. A., Subak-Sharpe J. H. Doublet frequency analysis of bacterial DNAs. J Mol Evol. 1973 Nov 27;2(4):277–292. doi: 10.1007/BF01654096. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Stein R., Razin A., Cedar H. In vitro methylation of the hamster adenine phosphoribosyltransferase gene inhibits its expression in mouse L cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1982 Jun;79(11):3418–3422. doi: 10.1073/pnas.79.11.3418. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Urieli-Shoval S., Gruenbaum Y., Razin A. Sequence and substrate specificity of isolated DNA methylases from Escherichia coli C. J Bacteriol. 1983 Jan;153(1):274–280. doi: 10.1128/jb.153.1.274-280.1983. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Woese C. R., Maniloff J., Zablen L. B. Phylogenetic analysis of the mycoplasmas. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1980 Jan;77(1):494–498. doi: 10.1073/pnas.77.1.494. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Bacteriology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES