1. Newly identified DNA methyltransferases of Ixodes ricinus ticks
- Author
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Jan Sterba, Michaela Wimmerová, Zuzana Hammerová, Pavlina Vechtova, Kateryna Kotsarenko, Natalia Langova, Libor Grubhoffer, and Lenka Malinovská
- Subjects
Nymph ,0301 basic medicine ,Ixodes ricinus ,Methyltransferase ,Transcription, Genetic ,030231 tropical medicine ,Molecular Conformation ,Biology ,Microbiology ,Arthropod Proteins ,Epigenesis, Genetic ,03 medical and health sciences ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,0302 clinical medicine ,parasitic diseases ,Animals ,Epigenetics ,Ovum ,Genetics ,Ixodes ,Ricinus ,Age Factors ,Methyltransferases ,biology.organism_classification ,5-Methylcytosine ,genomic DNA ,030104 developmental biology ,Infectious Diseases ,Gene Expression Regulation ,chemistry ,Larva ,Insect Science ,DNA methylation ,Female ,Parasitology ,Transcriptome ,DNA - Abstract
DNA methylation at the fifth position of cytosine (5mC) and at the sixth position of adenine (6 mA) plays an important role in the regulation of the gene expression and, in eukaryotes, is essential for normal development. For Ixodes ricinus, the most common European arthropod vector of human and animal pathogens, the DNA methylation profile and the role of DNA methylation in tick development are still under discussion. Our goal was to analyze the status of I. ricinus DNA methylation at different life stages and identify enzymes that produce this type of DNA modification. We found that 5mC and 6mA are present in I. ricinus genomic DNA at all life stages. In the transcriptome of I. ricinus, we identified the sequences of the putative IrDNMT1, IrDNMT3, and IrDAMT enzymes, and bioinformatic analysis and three-dimensional modeling predicted their DNA methylation activity. This confirms that I. ricinus possesses a complete DNA methylation toolkit. Our results suggest that DNA methylation is important for the physiology and transstadial development of ticks.
- Published
- 2020