Methylation of plant telomeric DNA: what do the results say?
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2011 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Plant Molecular Biology |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11103-011-9834-5 |
| Field | Genetics and molecular biology |
| Keywords | Nicotiana tabacum; Cell culture Telomere; Hypomethylating agents; Zebularine; DNA methylation |
| Description | Recently, we reported (Majerova et al. 2011) that hypomethylating drugs efficiently decrease methylation of telomeric DNA and activate telomerase without affecting telomere lengths in tobacco. The key issue of the Letter to Editor written by Vaquero-Sedas and Vega-Palas (2011) is, whether our results demonstrating methylation and druginduced hypomethylation of tobacco telomeric DNA repeats do correspond to the status of terminal telomeric sequences, or rather to internal telomeric sequences (ITSs) which might exist in tobacco genome as it is the case in Arabidopsis thaliana, the model organism which Vaquero- Sedas and Vega-Palas have been working with. They are referring to their recent article (Vaquero-Sedas et al. 2010) in which they conclude that ITSs in A. thaliana are heterochromatic, while telomeres are euchromatic. We are pleased that our paper has initiated this debate and take the opportunity to go through the key points of the Letter of Vaquero-Sedas and Vega-Palas |
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