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In the search to determine what controls how genes are expressed, an increasing number of studies are pointing to the fine print.
A new study out of UCLA and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies adds to that fine print by providing a comprehensive map the entire genome of a common laboratory plant, highlighting areas where DNA methylation may have taken place.
DNA methylation is an "epigenetic process": it affects gene expression, but does not alter the sequence of bases that make up the genetic code. Methylation adds a methyl group to cytosine, one of the four DNA bases, and can silence genes by blocking their transcription into RNA. Because methylations can be inherited during DNA replication, in gene expression, they are just as important as any changes to the base sequence.
The new research on Arabidopsis thaliana a flowering plant of that is considered the mouse of laboratory research plantsoffers the first genome-wide analysis of methylation for any plant or animal.
