Abstract
Insects provide an accessible system to study the contribution of DNA methylation to complex epigenetic phenotypes created to regulate gene expression, chromatin states, imprinting and dosage compensation. The members of genus Drosophila have been used as a model system to study aspects of biology like development, behaviour and genetics. Despite the popularity of Drosophila melanogaster as a genetic and epigenetic model organism, DNA methylation studies are limited due to low levels of genomic 5-methylcytosine. Our study employs a sensitive liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LCMS) based method to quantify the levels of 5-methylcytosine from the genomic DNA in different members of the genus Drosophila. Our results reveal that, despite being phylogenetically related, there is a marked variation in the levels of 5-methylcytosine between the genomes of the members of genus Drosophila. Also, there is a change in the genomic levels of 5-methylcytosine through each life cycle stage of holometabolous development in D. melanogaster.
Highlights
The epigenome of an organism constitutes histone modifications (Zentner & Henikoff, 2013), non-coding RNA molecules (Busto et al, 2015; Stuwe, Tóth & Aravin, 2014) and nucleotide modifications (Achwal, Ganguly & Chandra, 1984; Achwal, Iyer & Chandra, 1983; Gowher, Leismann & Jeltsch, 2000; Zhang et al, 2015)
In social insects with the canonical DNMT1 and DNMT3A/3B methyltransferases, DNA methylation can be attributed to differential splicing, regulation of expression and histone occupancy, whereas very little is known in solitary insects which mostly possess only DNMT2 methyltransferase (Glastad, Hunt & Goodisman, 2014)
The members of genus Drosophila undergo holometabolous development beginning with the embryonic stage which eventually develops into an adult fly after passing through
Summary
The epigenome of an organism constitutes histone modifications (Zentner & Henikoff, 2013), non-coding RNA molecules (Busto et al, 2015; Stuwe, Tóth & Aravin, 2014) and nucleotide modifications (Achwal, Ganguly & Chandra, 1984; Achwal, Iyer & Chandra, 1983; Gowher, Leismann & Jeltsch, 2000; Zhang et al, 2015). These modifications can together or independently influence the regulation of gene expression and conserve the energy resources by managing functional conformation of the genome (Zee et al, 2016). In social insects with the canonical DNMT1 and DNMT3A/3B methyltransferases, DNA methylation can be attributed to differential splicing, regulation of expression and histone occupancy, whereas very little is known in solitary insects which mostly possess only DNMT2 methyltransferase (Glastad, Hunt & Goodisman, 2014).
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