Abstract
Certain cytosine residues of eukaryotic DNA are methylated in inactive regions of the genome. For a long time the fruitfly Drosophila was thought to be an exception1,2,3,4, but now the evidence points to the existence of a functional DNA-methylation system in Drosophila as well5,6,7,9. Here we show that DNA is methylated, but that Drosophila genomic methylation is restricted to the early stages of embryonic development.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 52 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.83 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to the full article PDF.
USD 39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others
References
Rae, P. M. & Steele, R. E. Nucleic Acids Res. 6, 2987–2995 (1979).
Bird, A. P. & Taggart, M. H. Nucleic Acids Res. 8, 1485–1497 (1980).
Urieli-Shoval, S., Gruenbaum, Y., Sedat, J. & Razin, A. FEBS Lett. 146, 148–152 (1982).
Patel, C. V. & Gopinathan, K. P. Anal. Biochem. 164, 164–169 (1987).
Hung, M. S. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 96, 11940 –11945 (1999).
Tweedie, S. et al. Nature Genet. 23, 389– 390 (1999).
Wade, P. A. et al. Nature Genet. 23, 62– 66 (1999).
Lyko, F. et al. Nature Genet. 23, 363–366 (1999).
Lyko, F., Whittaker, A. J., Orr-Weaver, T. L. & Jaenisch, R. Mech. Dev. 95, 215–217 ( 2000).
Adams, M. D. et al. Science 287, 2185– 2195 (2000).
Achwal, C. W., Ganguly, P. & Chandra, H. S. EMBO J. 3, 263– 266 (1984).
Ramsahoye, B. H. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 97, 5237– 5242 (2000).
Yoder, J. A. & Bestor, T. H. Hum. Mol. Genet. 7 , 279–284 (1998).
Okano, M., Xie, S. & Li, E. Nucleic Acids Res. 26, 2536–2540 (1998).
Ramsahoye, B. H., Burnett, A. K. & Taylor, C. Blood 87, 2065– 2070 (1996).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lyko, F., Ramsahoye, B. & Jaenisch, R. DNA methylation in Drosophila melanogaster . Nature 408, 538–540 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35046205
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35046205
This article is cited by
-
The rate of epigenetic drift scales with maximum lifespan across mammals
Nature Communications (2023)
-
Insights into the genomic evolution of insects from cricket genomes
Communications Biology (2021)
-
Functions and mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance in animals
Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology (2018)
-
Progeny of old parents have increased social space in Drosophila melanogaster
Scientific Reports (2018)
-
Prolonged Effects of Silver Nanoparticles on p53/p21 Pathway-Mediated Proliferation, DNA Damage Response, and Methylation Parameters in HT22 Hippocampal Neuronal Cells
Molecular Neurobiology (2017)


