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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 May 1.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2014 Oct 1;15(11):749–760. doi: 10.1038/nrm3884

Figure 5. DNA methyltransferases target both DNA and RNA.

Figure 5

a, Best known for their role in gene silencing, all DNA methyltransferase family members are able to interact with both RNA and DNA21,22,96. DMNT1 and DMNT3 play a role in initiating and maintaining DNA methylation while DNMT2 methylates tRNAs. This tRNA modification is critical for maintaining tRNA stability and cell viability. b, Cladeogram depicting the evolution of the three major families of DNMTs131. DNMT2 likely diverged from its ancestral DNA methyltransferase activity to perform a critical role in methylating tRNAs, a function which it performs redundantly with NUSN2132. This radical change in DNMT’s substrate specificity highlights the ability of evolution to reshape a DNA-binding interface into one that preferentially recognizes RNA.