Abstract
Extrachromosomal plasmid DNA is transiently undermethylated in Escherichia coli during amplification in the presence of chloramphenicol. In addition, undermethylation of phage lambda DNA was observed after thermal induction of a lambda c1857 lysogen while the integrated lambda phage DNA was found to be fully methylated. These methylation pattern changes occur under conditions (extensive replication) in which the intracellular methylase level becomes limiting. In an E. coli strain that harbors a plasmid that carries the dam methylase gene and therefore overproduces dam methylase, there is no undermethylation of dam sites in either of the extrachromosomal DNAs. The sites that are methylated by the mec methylase in both plasmid and lambda phage DNAs were undermethylated in the dam overproducer as well. These results indicate that the intracellular level of the E. coli methylase determines the DNA methylation pattern.
Full text
PDFImages in this article
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Bird A. P., Southern E. M. Use of restriction enzymes to study eukaryotic DNA methylation: I. The methylation pattern in ribosomal DNA from Xenopus laevis. J Mol Biol. 1978 Jan 5;118(1):27–47. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(78)90242-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 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]
- Geier G. E., Modrich P. Recognition sequence of the dam methylase of Escherichia coli K12 and mode of cleavage of Dpn I endonuclease. J Biol Chem. 1979 Feb 25;254(4):1408–1413. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Hattman S. Partial purification of the Escherichia coli K-12 mec+ deoxyribonucleic acid-cytosine methylase: in vitro methylation completely protects bacteriophage lambda deoxyribonucleic acid against cleavage by R-EcoRII. J Bacteriol. 1977 Mar;129(3):1330–1334. doi: 10.1128/jb.129.3.1330-1334.1977. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Hattman S., Schlagman S., Cousens L. Isolation of a mutant of Escherichia coli defective in cytosine-specific deoxyribonucleic acid methylase activity and in partial protection of bacteriophage lambda against restriction by cells containing the N-3 drug-resistance factor. J Bacteriol. 1973 Sep;115(3):1103–1107. doi: 10.1128/jb.115.3.1103-1107.1973. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Herman G. E., Modrich P. Escherichia coli K-12 clones that overproduce dam methylase are hypermutable. J Bacteriol. 1981 Jan;145(1):644–646. doi: 10.1128/jb.145.1.644-646.1981. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Herman G. E., Modrich P. Escherichia coli dam methylase. Physical and catalytic properties of the homogeneous enzyme. J Biol Chem. 1982 Mar 10;257(5):2605–2612. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Jones P. A., Taylor S. M. Cellular differentiation, cytidine analogs and DNA methylation. Cell. 1980 May;20(1):85–93. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(80)90237-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Lu A. L., Clark S., Modrich P. Methyl-directed repair of DNA base-pair mismatches in vitro. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 Aug;80(15):4639–4643. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.15.4639. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Marinus M. G., Morris N. R. Pleiotropic effects of a DNA adenine methylation mutation (dam-3) in Escherichia coli K12. Mutat Res. 1975 Apr;28(1):15–26. doi: 10.1016/0027-5107(75)90309-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Pollack Y., Stein R., Razin A., Cedar H. Methylation of foreign DNA sequences in eukaryotic cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1980 Nov;77(11):6463–6467. doi: 10.1073/pnas.77.11.6463. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 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]
- Razin A., Urieli S., Pollack Y., Gruenbaum Y., Glaser G. Studies on the biological role of dna methylation; IV. Mode of methylation of DNA in E. coli cells. Nucleic Acids Res. 1980 Apr 25;8(8):1783–1792. doi: 10.1093/nar/8.8.1783. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Razin A., Webb C., Szyf M., Yisraeli J., Rosenthal A., Naveh-Many T., Sciaky-Gallili N., Cedar H. Variations in DNA methylation during mouse cell differentiation in vivo and in vitro. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 Apr;81(8):2275–2279. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.8.2275. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 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]
- Szyf M., Gruenbaum Y., Urieli-Shoval S., Razin A. Studies on the biological role of DNA methylation: V. The pattern of E.coli DNA methylation. Nucleic Acids Res. 1982 Nov 25;10(22):7247–7259. doi: 10.1093/nar/10.22.7247. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 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]
- Vogelstein B., Gillespie D. Preparative and analytical purification of DNA from agarose. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1979 Feb;76(2):615–619. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.2.615. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Wagner R., Jr, Meselson M. Repair tracts in mismatched DNA heteroduplexes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1976 Nov;73(11):4135–4139. doi: 10.1073/pnas.73.11.4135. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Wigler M., Levy D., Perucho M. The somatic replication of DNA methylation. Cell. 1981 Apr;24(1):33–40. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(81)90498-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]