In this issue of Molecular Pharmacology, Kundakovic et al. (p. 644) present compelling evidence suggesting that the promoters for reelin and GAD67 are coordinately regulated. The regulation occurs at the level of DNA (cytosine-5) methylation. Moreover, the authors present evidence suggesting that pharmacologic inhibition of DNA methyltransferase results in reversal of methylation, loss of methy...

The TIS21 immediate-early gene and leukemia-associated BTG1 gene encode proteins with similar sequences. Two-hybrid analysis identified a protein that interacts with TIS21 and BTG1. Sequence motifs associated with S-adenosyl-L-methionine binding suggested this protein might have methyltransferase activity. A glutathione S-transferase (GST) fusion of the putative methyltransferase modifies argin...

Treatment of isolated rat adipocytes with adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) caused a 1.5-fold increase in phospholipid methyltransferase activity within 5 min. This effect of ACTH was concentration-dependent with maximal activation at 2 milliunits/ml ACTH, and was reproduced by dibutyryl cyclic AMP. ACTH (2 milliunits/ml) caused an increase in the Vmax value of phospholipid methyltransferase without c...

The sequenced genome of Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. capri revealed the presence of a Type III restriction-modification system (MmyCI). The methyltransferase (modification) subunit of MmyCI (M.MmyCI) was shown to recognize the sequence 5'-TGAG-3' and methylate the adenine. The coding region of the methyltransferase gene contains 12 consecutive AG dinucleotide repeats that result in a translationa...

A comparison of the amino acid compositions of one of the folate-binding proteins of rat liver cytosol, folate-binding protein-cytosol II, and that of glycine N-methyltransferase (S-adenosyl-L-methionine:glycine methyltransferase, EC 2.1.1.20) from the same source indicated a great deal of structural homology between the two proteins. Antiserum prepared against the purified folate-binding prote...

1. Abstract 2. Introduction 3. N-methyltransferases involved in caffeine biosynthesis 3.1. N-methyltransferase activity in cell free preparations 3.2. Purification of caffeine synthase from tea leaves 3.3. Molecular cloning of caffeine synthase gene from tea leaves 3.4. The orthologous genes in coffee 3.5. The characteristic future of N-methyltransferase in theobromineaccumulating species 4. Ca...

The roles of DNA methyltransferase-2 (DNMT2) enzymes are controversial; whether DNMT2 functions primarily as a nuclear DNA methyltransferase or as a cytoplasmic tRNA methyltransferase, and whether DNMT2 activity impacts development, as dnmt2 mutant mice or Drosophila lack phenotypes. Here we show that morpholino knockdown of Dnmt2 protein in zebrafish embryos confers differentiation defects in ...

The supernatant fraction of brain homogenate stimulates partially pursed phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase, catechol methyltransferase, and acetylserotonin methyltransferase activities in uifro. The stimulating factor was purified, and the mechanism of stimulation was investigated. The results show that S-adenosylhomocysteine, a product from S-adenosyhnethionine, is a potent inhibitor of t...

Aziridine-based cofactor mimics have been synthesized and are shown to undergo methyltransferase-dependent DNA alkylation. Notably, each cofactor mimic possesses an azide functionality, to which can be attached an assortment of unnatural groups following methyltransferase-dependent DNA delivery. DNA duplexes modified with these cofactor mimics are capable of undergoing the Staudinger ligation w...