DNA methylation mutants: Generic molecular tools to identify cereal genes controlling gene expression and regulation

Methylation of DNA at Cytosine residues plays an important role in biological processes such as development genomic imprinting and cancer. Main objectives: - Optimisation of a technique to determine the pattern of genome-wide methylation; - Isolation, identification and characterisation of different cereal genes that control DNA methylation in the genome. Preliminary Observations: - Genomic DNA from roots of different varieties of rice exhibits high amount of DNA methylation in comparison to the amount seen in the genomic DNA from leaves; - Genomic DNA from the roots of the putative cytosine methylase mutant shows low level of DNA methylation when compared to the genomic DNA level of the wild-type roots; - Extent of DNA methylation observed in the roots of putative cytosine methylase mutant is the same as that in roots treated with 5-azacytidine; - Putative cytosine methylase (Zmet3) could be root-specific methylase.