Eukaryotic adenosine methylation

[Dak]

does anyone know what role adenosine methylation plays in eukaryotes? iv looked through text books, papers, and asked my lecturers at uni, and as far as i can tell it seems that their is some evidence to suggest that adenosine plays some sort of role in dna replication and/or transcription, but no one seems to be sure

 

would appresiate any thoughts/nuggets of wisdom

 

thanx in advance

[blike]

That's a good question. As far as I remember, methylation of nucleic acids in bacteria identifies the host DNA and prevents restriction endonucleases from splicing it. In eukaryotes, it plays a role in regulating gene expression. You might want to look into the role of methylation in promoters. Do a google search, you should be able to come up with something.

[Dak]

yup, in prokaryotes it protects the cells genome from being cut by the restriction enzymes. in eukaryotes, cytosine methylation plays a role in deactivating genes, but no one seems to be sure of the role of adenosine methylisation in eukaryotes?