Methylation profile of P. lividus sea urchin genes during development.
Methylation pattern has been studied in two genes of sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus using sodium bisulfite method to understand the possible role of DNA methylation during invertebrate development. Three regions of the gene for the hatching enzyme have been analyzed and all of them resulted unmethylated in embryos at different stages of development. Four CpG rich regions have been studied in the gene for DNA methyltransferase: upstream, upstream-exon1, intron 1 and exon 20. The upstream-exon 1 region is always unmethylated, while intron 1 and exon 20 are heavy methylated. Only the upstream fragment changed its pattern of methylation during development. For none of the studied regions the reported data show a general direct correlation between gene expression and methylation process during development.
Piscopo
Annamaria
A
Department of Genetics, General and Molecular Biology, University of Naples Federico II, Via Mezzocannone 8, 80134 Naples, Italy.
Pulcrano
Giovanna
G
Aniello
Francesco
F
Branno
Margherita
M
Fucci
Laura
L
D000818:Animals; D004247:DNA / Q000378:metabolism; D019175:DNA Methylation; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D047328:Paracentrotus / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013447:Sulfites / Q000378:metabolism
D013447:Sulfites; D004247:DNA; C009279:sodium bisulfite