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Article: Mammalian DNMTs in the male germ line DNA of Drosophila.(deoxyribonucleic acid methyltransferases)(deoxyribonucleic acid)(Report)
- Article from:
- Biochemistry and Cell Biology
- Article date:
- October 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 NRC Research Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Introduction
Imprinting in mammals is accompanied by DNA methylation (Jaenisch and Bird 2003). It is important for gene silencing and for the periodical inactivation of certain parental alleles during early development. In Drosophila, parental effects have only been reported in exceptional cases (Reuter and Spierer 1992). It is still unclear how epigenetic regulation and imprinting is established in Drosophila melanogaster. Although significant parts of the genome become inactive in a tissue-specific manner (Maggert and Golic 2002), only very low levels of DNA methylation were found in Drosophila (Gowher et al. 2000; Kunert et al. 2003). Consistent with this, the ...