Figure 2.

Different roles of DNA methylation in plant cells. (A) The promoter DNA methylation (red circle) represses transcription activity and gene expression; (B) methylation of the coding regions generates an inaccessible chromatin structure suppressing the aberrant transcription start site; (C) DNA methylation affects genome stability by silencing transposons and other DNA repeated sequences; (D) chromosome interactions through pericentromeric regions or heterochromatin islands depend on the methylation of these regions; (E) DNA methylation could be involved in the biogenesis of circRNAs; (F) mRNA methylation controls stability, splicing, and processing of the transcript itself. TSS, transcription start site; CTSS, cryptic transcription start site; AT, aberrant transcript; TE, transposable elements.