Abstract
N6-methyladenine (6mA) is a DNA base modification at the 6th nitrogen position; recently, it has been resurfaced as a potential reversible epigenetic mark in eukaryotes. Despite its existence, 6mA was considered to be absent due to its undetectable level. However, with the new advancements in methods, considerable 6mA distribution is identified across the plant genome. Unlike 5-methylcytosine (5mC) in the gene promoter, 6mA does not have a definitive role in repression but is exposed to have divergent regulation in gene expression. Though 6mA information is less known, the available evidences suggest its function in plant development, tissue differentiation, and regulations in gene expression. The current review article emphasizes the research advances in DNA 6mA modifications, identification, available databases, analysis tools and its significance in plant development, cellular functions and future perspectives of research.
Highlights
The past few decades have witnessed several novel reports on the epigenetic modifications in DNA, RNA and histone proteins that have paved way to determine their role in various biological processes in plants and animals [1]
The process of cytosine methylation and demethylation is well documented in plants and methylation pathway is known as transcriptional gene silencing (TGS) [12]
DNA 6mA, initially identified as a defense mechanism to distinguish host DNA from alien ones, is a predominant modification in prokaryotes whereas in eukaryotes 5mC is a widespread DNA modification that is associated with gene silencing. 6mA, though discovered in the mid-1950s and studied well in prokaryotes, had not been considered significant in higher organisms until the introduction of enhanced analytical techniques that have allowed its detection and quantification
Summary
The past few decades have witnessed several novel reports on the epigenetic modifications in DNA, RNA and histone proteins that have paved way to determine their role in various biological processes in plants and animals [1]. 6mA has been resurfaced as one of the potential reversible epigenetic mark in plants [14], which is found to be less distributed in eukaryotes when compared to prokaryotes. Vast improvements have occurred recently in existing techniques with increased sensitivity to detect the epigenetic modifications such as high-throughput sequencing, Single Molecule Real Time Sequencing (SMRT), Immunoprecipitation (IP), Liquid Chromatography-Mass spectrometry Tandem Mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), enabled us to determine the distribution of base modifications along with the motifs. Similar results obtained with modern efficient techniques have impelled scientists to explore 6mA in multicellular organisms, which elicited the current status of 6mA in plants.
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