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Mol Cell Biol. 1987 March; 7(3): 1032-1038

Signal for DNA methylation associated with tandem duplication in Neurospora crassa.

ABSTRACT

Most cytosine residues are subject to methylation in the zeta-eta (zeta-eta) region of Neurospora crassa. The region consists of a tandem direct duplication of a 0.8-kilobase-pair element including a 5S rRNA gene. The repeated elements have diverged about 15% by the occurrence of numerous CG to TA mutations, which probably resulted from deamination of methylated cytosines. Most but not all common laboratory strains of N. crassa have methylated duplicated DNA at the zeta-eta locus. However, many strains of N. crassa and strains of N. tetrasperma, N. sitophila, and N. intermedia have one instead of two copies of the homologous DNA and it is not methylated. A cross of strains differing at the zeta-eta locus produced progeny which all had duplicated, methylated, or unique, unmethylated DNA, like the parental strains. We conclude that a signal causing unprecedented heavy DNA methylation is present in the zeta-eta region.

This article has been cited by other articles:

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• Selker, E., Jensen, B., Richardson, G. (1987). A portable signal causing faithful DNA methylation de novo in Neurospora crassa. Science 238: 48-53 [Abstract]