During early embryo development, Oct-4 is an important transcription factor for the early differentiation. The present study was first examined methylation status in distal enhancer and promoter region of Oct-4 during mouse pre-implantation embryo development. In oocyte and sperm, high methylation was observed in both distal and proximal of promoter in Oct-4. Following fertilization, relatively high methylation level remained until 8-cell stage embryos, but decreased at the morula and blastocyst stage. Specific gene knock down of Oct-4 by siRNA injection into zygote induced higher methylation rates of both distal and proximal region ofpromoter of Oct-4. These results suggest a functional link between the DNA methylation status of distal and promoter region in the Oct-4 gene and the gene sequence-specific transcriptional silencing by exogenous siRNA injection during mouse pre- implantation embryos.

중이온빔(20Ne)을 담배 식물체에 조사(irradiation)하여 식물체의 생장과 DNA의 변이에 미치는 영향을 검토하였다. 발아율과 초장은 조사선 량이 증가함에 따라 감소하였다. 반면 50Gy~10Gy의 저선량에서 추대와 개화가 촉진되어 발육은 오히려 촉진되었다. 총 100개의 primer를 이용하여 RAPD분석한 결과, 59개의 primer에서 총 336개의 DNA단편이 증폭되었고, 1개의 primer에서 중이온빔 조사처리구에서만 출현하는 DNA단편이 나타났다. AFLP분석 결과, 개체 특이적인 DNA단편은 나타난 반면 중이온빔 처리구 특이적인 DNA 단편은 관찰되지 않았다.