PNAS: Zhu Jiankang reveals a new mechanism for maintaining DNA methylation and genome stability

On August 28, 2021, PNAS journal published an online research paper entitled "Pathway conversion enables a double-lock mechanism to maintain DNA methylation and genome stability" by Zhu Jiankang Research Group, Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Regardless of whether it is a mammal or a plant, there is a methylation (-CH3) modification on the 5th carbon atom of the cytosine base in the genome

In plants, multiple DNA methylation regulatory pathways cooperate to maintain the dense DNA methylation status of jumping genes at different genomic locations

Different from the previous model, in this study, the researchers found that after the mutation of the chromatin remodeling factor DDM1, nearly 1,000 sites of CMT2 that maintain DNA methylation are converted to the RdDM pathway maintenance, indicating that in some cases, for The maintenance of DNA methylation at a given location is not static but can be flexibly switched.

He Li, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Molecular Plant Excellence, and a graduated doctoral student Zhao Cheng (now a postdoctoral fellow at Karolinska Institute in Sweden) are the co-first authors, and researcher Zhu Jiankang is the corresponding author.

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