ArticlePloS one2011
On the evolutionary origin of eukaryotic DNA methyltransferases and Dnmt2.
Article in PloS one, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 64 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
64 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 131 citations in OpenAlex.
- Epigenomics as Potential Tools for Enhancing Magnitude of Breeding Approaches for Developing Climate Resilient Chickpea.Frontiers in genetics · 2022Pooled it
- Mapping Protein Occupancy on DNA with an Unnatural Cytosine Modification.ACS chemical biology · 2026Article
- Genome-wide analysis of strand-specific transcription and DNA methylation inFrontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Adenine DNA methylation associated with transcriptionally permissive chromatin is widespread across eukaryotes.Nature genetics · 2025Article
- Dissecting the function of the DNMT2-homolog (DNMA) in Dictyostelium discoideum.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2025Article
- Repressive Cytosine Methylation is a Marker of Viral Gene Transfer Across Divergent Eukaryotes.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Are complex traits underpinned by polygenic molecular traits? A reflection on the complexity of gene expression.Plant & cell physiology · 2025Review
- Sex-biased gene expression precedes sexual dimorphism in the agonadal annelid Platynereis dumerilii.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2025Article
- Sex-biased gene expression precedes sexual dimorphism in the agonadal annelidbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
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- TheNAR genomics and bioinformatics · 2023Article
- Determinants of DNMT2/TRDMT1 preference for substrates tRNA and DNA during the evolution.RNA biology · 2023Article
- The histone code of the fungal genusMicrobial genomics · 2022Article
- How Azanucleosides Affect Myeloid Cell Fate.Cells · 2022Review
- DNA Methyltransferases: From Evolution to Clinical Applications.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Encyclopaedia of eukaryotic DNA methylation: from patterns to mechanisms and functions.Biochemical Society transactions · 2022Article
- Evolution of DNA Methylation Across Ecdysozoa.Journal of molecular evolution · 2022Article
- Position 34 of tRNA is a discriminative element for m5C38 modification by human DNMT2.Nucleic acids research · 2021Article
- Epigenetic Regulation of Endothelial Cell Function by Nucleic Acid Methylation in Cardiac Homeostasis and Disease.Cardiovascular drugs and therapy · 2021Review
- Network-based visualisation reveals new insights into transposable element diversity.Molecular systems biology · 2021Article
4 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The Dnmt2 enzymes show strong amino acid sequence similarity with eukaryotic and prokaryotic DNA-(cytosine C5)-methyltransferases. Yet, Dnmt2 enzymes from several species were shown to methylate tRNA-Asp and had been proposed that eukaryotic DNA methyltransferases evolved from a Dnmt2-like tRNA methyltransferase ancestor [Goll et al., 2006, Science, 311, 395-8]. It was the aim of this study to investigate if this hypothesis could be supported by evidence from sequence alignments. We present phylogenetic analyses based on sequence alignments of the methyltransferase catalytic domains of more than 2300 eukaryotic and prokaryotic DNA-(cytosine C5)-methyltransferases and analyzed the distribution of DNA methyltransferases in eukaryotic species. The Dnmt2 homologues were reliably identified by an additional conserved CFT motif next to motif IX. All DNA methyltransferases and Dnmt2 enzymes were clearly separated from other RNA-(cytosine-C5)-methyltransferases. Our sequence alignments and phylogenetic analyses indicate that the last universal eukaryotic ancestor contained at least one member of the Dnmt1, Dnmt2 and Dnmt3 families of enzymes and additional RNA methyltransferases. The similarity of Dnmt2 enzymes with DNA methyltransferases and absence of similarity with RNA methyltransferases combined with their strong RNA methylation activity suggest that the ancestor of Dnmt2 was a DNA methyltransferase and an early Dnmt2 enzyme changed its substrate preference to tRNA. There is no phylogenetic evidence that Dnmt2 was the precursor of eukaryotic Dnmts. Most likely, the eukaryotic Dnmt1 and Dnmt3 families of DNA methyltransferases had an independent origin in the prokaryotic DNA methyltransferase sequence space.
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