Rebecca Safran

Rebecca Safran Q & A 5-methylcytosine. This specificity is unusual in fungi, but was predicted in prior studies of de novo methylation of repeated genes in C. cinerea. Recent attention has been focused on an additional modified base, 5-hydroxymethylcytosine, and its role in ‘poised chromatin’ in stem cells. The C. cinerea genome contains 38 copies of a gene predicted to carry out this conversion, and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine has been detected in the C. cinerea genome. It appears that this beautiful model organism will continue to contribute to our understanding of important problems in biology, as well as serving as a tractable system to facilitate desired manipulations of other basidiomycetes important for wood biodegradation (responsible for the return of 80 billion tons of carbon per year to the atmosphere), and perhaps bioremediation and alternative fuel production.