A group of homologous nucleic acid modification enzymes called Dnmt2, Trdmt1, Pmt1, DnmA, and Ehmet in different model organisms catalyze the transfer of a methyl group from the cofactor S-adenosyl-methionine (SAM) to the carbon-5 of cytosine residues. Originally considered as DNA MTases, these enzymes were shown to be tRNA methyltransferases about a decade ago. Between the presumed involvement...

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR associated nuclease 9 (CRISPR-Cas9) system was instigated first into eukaryotes in the last ten years are becoming productive and worldwide application for genome modification. Genome engineering through insertion of foreign DNA insert have numerous disadvantages which could be overcome by use DNA-free editing. Various ways editin...

Mutator stocks of maize produce mutants at many loci at rates 20- to 50-fold above spontaneous levels. Current evidence suggests that this high mutation rate is mediated by an active transposable element system, Mu. Members of this transposable element family are found in approximately 10-60 copies in Mutator stocks. We report here an initial characterization of previously undetected sequences ...

The type II restriction endonucleases form one of the largest families of biochemically-characterized proteins. These endonucleases typically share little sequence similarity, except among isoschizomers that recognize the same sequence. MmeI is an unusual type II restriction endonuclease that combines endonuclease and methyltransferase activities in a single polypeptide. MmeI cuts DNA 20 bases ...

There are three mechanisms by which foreign DNA may enter a prokaryotic organism: conjugation between Gram-negative bacteria, uptake of exogenous DNA (transformation) and infection by viral (bacteriophage) nucleic acid. The interaction between a bacteriophage and its host bacterial cell has been extensively investigated. A bacterium can restrict phage infection through its ability to degrade th...

Sequence-specific DNA modification is of significance for applications in bio- and nano-technology, medical diagnostics and fundamental life sciences research. Preferentially, labelling should be performed covalently, which avoids doubts about label dissociation from the DNA under various conditions. Several methods to label native DNA have been developed in the last two decades. Triple-helix-f...

The epigenetic alterations like histone modifications , DNA methylation and others remarkable categories  including nucleosome remodeling and RNA mediated targeting have been strongly investigated  recently .In this way , beside the notable importance of DNA methylation ,the histone modifications are the most important issues in the  tumorogenesis and cancer progression. Moreover...