Skip to main content
PMC home page
Nucleic Acids Research logoLink to Nucleic Acids Research
. 1985 May 24;13(10):3471–3478. doi: 10.1093/nar/13.10.3471

DNA methylation of viruses infecting a eukaryotic Chlorella-like green alga.

J L Van Etten, A M Schuster, L Girton, D E Burbank, D Swinton, S Hattman
PMCID: PMC341253  PMID: 4011432

Abstract

The genomic DNAs of the eukaryotic Chlorella-like green alga, strain NC64A, and eleven of its viruses all contain significant levels of 5-methyldeoxycytidine. In addition, the host DNA as well as six of the viral DNAs also contain N6-methyldeoxyadenosine. At least some of the methylated bases in the host reside in different base sequences than the methylated bases in the viruses as shown by differential susceptibility to restriction endonuclease enzymes. This suggests that the viruses encode for DNA methyltransferases with sequence specificities different from that of the host enzyme.

Full text

PDF
3471

Images in this article

3474Image
on p.3474
3475Image
on p.3475

Selected References

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

  1. Burnett T. S., Sleeman J. P. Uneven distribution of methylation sites within the human papillomavirus la genome: possible relevance to viral gene expression. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Dec 11;12(23):8847–8860. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.23.8847. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Cummings D. J., Tait A., Goddard J. M. Methylated bases in DNA from Paramecium aurelia. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1974 Nov 20;374(1):1–11. doi: 10.1016/0005-2787(74)90194-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Danos O., Katinka M., Yaniv M. Molecular cloning, refined physical map and heterogeneity of methylation sites of papilloma virus type 1a DNA. Eur J Biochem. 1980 Aug;109(2):457–461. doi: 10.1111/j.1432-1033.1980.tb04815.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Doerfler W. DNA methylation and gene activity. Annu Rev Biochem. 1983;52:93–124. doi: 10.1146/annurev.bi.52.070183.000521. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Doerfler W. DNA methylation--a regulatory signal in eukaryotic gene expression. J Gen Virol. 1981 Nov;57(Pt 1):1–20. doi: 10.1099/0022-1317-57-1-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Gorovsky M. A., Hattman S., Pleger G. L. ( 6 N)methyl adenine in the nuclear DNA of a eucaryote, Tetrahymena pyriformis. J Cell Biol. 1973 Mar;56(3):697–701. doi: 10.1083/jcb.56.3.697. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Hattman S., Kenny C., Berger L., Pratt K. Comparative study of DNA methylation in three unicellular eucaryotes. J Bacteriol. 1978 Sep;135(3):1156–1157. doi: 10.1128/jb.135.3.1156-1157.1978. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Marinus M. G., Carraway M., Frey A. Z., Brown L., Arraj J. A. Insertion mutations in the dam gene of Escherichia coli K-12. Mol Gen Genet. 1983;192(1-2):288–289. doi: 10.1007/BF00327681. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. McClelland M. The effect of site specific methylation on restriction endonuclease cleavage (update). Nucleic Acids Res. 1983 Jan 11;11(1):r169–r173. doi: 10.1093/nar/11.1.235-c. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Pakhomova M. V., Zaitseva G. N., Belozerskii A. N. Nalichie 5-metiltsitozina i 6-metilaminopurina v sostave DNK nekorotykh vodoroslei. Dokl Akad Nauk SSSR. 1968 Sep 21;182(3):712–714. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Pratt K., Hattman S. Deoxyribonucleic acid methylation and chromatin organization in Tetrahymena thermophila. Mol Cell Biol. 1981 Jul;1(7):600–608. doi: 10.1128/mcb.1.7.600. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Proffitt J. H., Davie J. R., Swinton D., Hattman S. 5-Methylcytosine is not detectable in Saccharomyces cerevisiae DNA. Mol Cell Biol. 1984 May;4(5):985–988. doi: 10.1128/mcb.4.5.985. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Rae P. M. Hydroxymethyluracil in eukaryote DNA: a natural feature of the pyrrophyta (dinoflagellates). Science. 1976 Dec 3;194(4269):1062–1064. doi: 10.1126/science.988637. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Van Etten J. L., Burbank D. E., Schuster A. M., Meints R. H. Lytic viruses infecting a Chlorella-like alga. Virology. 1985 Jan 15;140(1):135–143. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(85)90452-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. WYATT G. R. Occurrence of 5-methylcytosine in nucleic acids. Nature. 1950 Aug 5;166(4214):237–238. doi: 10.1038/166237b0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Wahl G. M., Stern M., Stark G. R. Efficient transfer of large DNA fragments from agarose gels to diazobenzyloxymethyl-paper and rapid hybridization by using dextran sulfate. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1979 Aug;76(8):3683–3687. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.8.3683. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Willis D. B., Goorha R., Granoff A. DNA methyltransferase induced by frog virus 3. J Virol. 1984 Jan;49(1):86–91. doi: 10.1128/jvi.49.1.86-91.1984. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Willis D. B., Granoff A. Frog virus 3 DNA is heavily methylated at CpG sequences. Virology. 1980 Nov;107(1):250–257. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(80)90290-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Nucleic Acids Research are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES