The association between the COMT rs4680 (G>A, Val-158-Met) polymorphism and the risk of fibromyalgia has been investigated in previous studies, but the results are controversial. Therefore, a meta-analysis has been performed to confirm the association between COMT rs4680 (G>A, Val-158-Met) polymorphism and the risk of fibromyalgia in this study. Our study includes eleven case-control studies with 2,909 individuals comprised of 1,365 fibromyalgia patients and 1,544 control subjects. The regression analysis was performed using the random effects model or the fixed effects model and OR with the corresponding 95 % CI was calculated for the allele, recessive, dominant, over-dominant, co-dominant 1, and co-dominant 2 model. No statistical significant associations were observed between COMT rs4680 (G>A, Val-158-Met) polymorphism and risk of fibromyalgia in allele model (P-value = 1.00), recessive model (P-value = 1.00), dominant model (P-value = 0.54), co-dominant 1 model (P-value = 1.00) and co-dominant 2 model (P-value = 1.00). In conclusion, our meta-analysis showed that the COMT rs4680(G>A, Val-158-Met) polymorphism might not be genetic risk factor for the fibromyalgia.

During normal early embryonic development in mammals, the global pattern of genomic DNA methylation undergoes marked changes. The level of methylation is high in male and female gametes. Thus, we cloned the cDNA of the porcine DNA methyltransferase 1 (Dnmt1) gene to promote the efficiency of the generation of porcine clones. In this study, porcine Dnmt1 cDNA was sequenced, and Dnmt1 mRNA expression was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase reaction (RT-PCR) in porcine tissues during embryonic development. The porcine Dnmt1 cDNA sequence showed more homology with that of bovine than human, mouse, and rat. The complete sequence of porcine Dnmt1 cDNA was 4,774-bp long and consisted of an open reading frame encoding a protein of 1611 amino acids. The amino acid sequence of porcine DNMT1 showed significant homology with those of bovine (91%), human (88%), rat (76%), and mouse (75%) Dnmt1. The expression of porcine Dnmt1 mRNA was detected during porcine embryogenesis. The mRNA was detected at stages of porcine preimplantation development (1-cell, 2-cell, 4-cell, 8-cell, morula, and blastocyst stages). It was also abundantly expressed in tissues (lung, ovary, kidney and somatic cells). Further investigations are necessary to understand the complex links between methyltransferase 1 and the transcriptional activity in cloned porcine tissues.

SET (Suppressor of variegation, Enhancer of zeste, and the Trithorax) domain-containing proteins are known to have methyltransferase activity at lysine residues of histone proteins. In this study, we identified a novel SET domain-containing protein from mouse and named Kodo7. Indeed, Kodo7 has methyltransferase activity at K9 residue of the H3 protein as demonstrated by a histone methyl-transferse activity assay using GST-tagged Kodo7. Confocal microscopy showed that Kodo7 is co-localized with histones in the nucleus. Interestingly, ectopic expression of Kodo7 by transient transfection induced cell death and treatment of the transfectants with a caspase-3 inhibitor, Ac-DEVD-AFC decreased Kodo7-induced apoptosis. These results suggest that Kodo7 induces apoptotic cell death through increased methylation of histones leading to transcriptional repression.

Flowering time is a important agronomic trait for grain production in rice. So the control of flowering time is a critical step. In Arabidopsis, expression of certain key flowering gene such as FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) is known to be epigenetically regulated by chromatin modification through Enhancer of Zeste[E(z)], a histone methyltransferase, that core component of repressive complex, polycomb repressive complex2(PRC2). However, the chromatin mechanism involved in the regulation of rice flowering genes is presently not well known. Here we show that predict coding region of a intronic LncRNA[termed rice COLDAIR(OsCOLDAIR)], which is expected to associate with a component of PRC2, is predicted at rice FLC gene. And additionally we suggest interaction of histone methyltransferase and E3 SUMO ligase that indicate possibility of interaction with rice E(z) gene and rice E3 SUMO ligase. Our study contribute to control of rice flowering time by observing two factor that can regulate expression of related of rice FLC gene.

Plants have evolved a set of protecting mechanisms against pathogens, which include secondary metabolites and induced defense responses to pathogen attack. The biological role of purine alkaloids including caffeine is largely unknown. It has been proposed that caffeine confers a resistance against pathogenic bacteria and herbivores. We, in this study, tested direct effects on the growth of rice pathogenic microbes, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) causing a bacterial leaf blight and Magnaporthe grisea (M. grisea) causing a rice blast. Cell growth of Xoo and M. grisea were significantly retarded in presence of high concentration (2mM) of caffeine. Exogenous caffeine (5mM) induced resistance of wild type rice (cv. Dongjin, susceptible to Xoo and M. grisea) against those pathogens. These results indicated that caffeine enhanced the basal resistance to infection with Xoo. In addition, expression of pathogenesis-related (PR) genes was tested in the caffeine treated rice to elucidate the acquired resistance by caffeine, resulted in induction of PR genes including OsPR1a and OsPrb1. We have generated a transgenic rice producing caffeine by introduction of three N- methyltransferase genes (CaXMT1, CaMXMT1, CaDXMT1) identified from coffee plant. The transgenic rice successfully expressed the three genes, synthesized caffeine up to 5ug/g and showed enhanced resistance to Xoo. We also observed that transcripts of PR genes such as the OsPR1a and OsPrb1 encoding PR-1 type pathogenesis-related protein increased in the caffeine-producing rice. These result showed that caffeine is likely to act a powerful factor to increase level of rice defense as a natural and non-harmful metabolite.

DNA methylation is involved in epigenetic processes such as X-chromosome inactivation, imprinting and silencing of transposons. DNA methylation is a highly plastic and critical component of mammalian development The DNA methyltransferases (Dnmts) are responsible for the generation of genomic methylation patterns, which lead to transcriptional silencing. The maintenance DNA methyltransferase enzyme, Dnmt 1, and the de novo methyltransferase, Dnmt3a and Dnmt3b, are indispensable for development because mice homozygous for the targeted disruption of any of these genes are not viable. The occurrence of DNA methylation is not random, and it can result in gene silencing The mechanisms underlying these processes are poorly understood. It is well established that DNA methylation and histone deacetylation operate along a common mechanistic pathway to repress transcription through the action of methyl-binding domain proteins (MBDs), which are components of, or recruit, histone deacetylase (HDAC) complexes to methylated DNA. As a basis for future studies on the role of the DNA-methyl-transferase in porcine development, we have isolated and characterized a partial cDNA coding for the porcine Dnmt1. Total RNA of testis, lung and ovary was isolated with TRlzol according to the manufacture's specifications. 5 ug of total RNA was reverse transcribed with Super Script II in the presence of porcine Dnmt 1 specific primers. Standard PCRs were performed in a total volume of 50 ul with cDNA as template. Two DNA fragmenets in different position were produced about 700bp, 1500bp and were cloned into pCR II-TOPO according to the manufacture's specification. Assembly of all sequences resulted in a cDNA from 158bp of 5'to 4861bp of 3'compare with the known human maintenance methyltransferase. Now, we are cloning the unknown Dnmt 1 region by 5'-RACE method and expression of Dnmt 1 in tissues from adult porcine animals.

포유류 배아발생 중 DNA 메틸화는 세포분화와 유전자발현에서 중요한 역할을 하는 것으로 알려져 있다. 그러나, 생쥐 착상전 초기배아 발생 중 메틸화효소에 의해 유지되는 DNA 메틸화의 중요성과 자세한 기작은 잘 이해되고 있지 않다. 이 연구에서 DNA 메틸화의 역할에 관하여 알아보기 위하여, 성숙난자와 착상전 초기배아에서 DNA 메틸전이효소의 발현양상을 조사하였다. 이를 위해, DNA 메틸전이효소를 암호화하고 있는 cDNA에서 primer를 고안하였다.