DNA methylation suppresses chitin degradation and promotes the wing development by inhibiting Bmara-mediated chitinase e
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Epigenetics & Chromatin Open Access
RESEARCH
DNA methylation suppresses chitin degradation and promotes the wing development by inhibiting Bmara‑mediated chitinase expression in the silkworm, Bombyx mori Guanfeng Xu1,2†, Yangqin Yi1,2†, Hao Lyu1,2, Chengcheng Gong1,2, Qili Feng1,2, Qisheng Song3, Xuezhen Peng1,2, Lin Liu1,2 and Sichun Zheng1,2*
Abstract Background: DNA methylation, as an essential epigenetic modification found in mammals and plants, has been implicated to play an important role in insect reproduction. However, the functional role and the regulatory mechanism of DNA methylation during insect organ or tissue development are far from being clear. Results: Here, we found that DNA methylation inhibitor (5-aza-dC) treatment in newly molted pupae decreased the chitin content of pupal wing discs and adult wings and resulted in wing deformity of Bombyx mori. Transcriptome analysis revealed that the up-regulation of chitinase 10 (BmCHT10) gene might be related to the decrease of chitin content induced by 5-aza-dC treatment. Further, the luciferase activity assays demonstrated that DNA methylation suppressed the promoter activity of BmCHT10 by down-regulating the transcription factor, homeobox protein araucan (Bmara). Electrophoretic mobility shift assay, DNA pull-down and chromatin immunoprecipitation demonstrated that Bmara directly bound to the BmCHT10 promoter. Therefore, DNA methylation is involved in keeping the structural integrity of the silkworm wings from unwanted chitin degradation, as a consequence, it promotes the wing development of B. mori. Conclusions: This study reveals that DNA methylation plays an important role in the wing development of B. mori. Our results support that the indirect transcriptional repression of a chitin degradation-related gene BmCHT10 by DNA methylation is necessary to keep the proper wing development in B. mori. Keywords: DNA methylation, Chitin degradation, Chitinase, Bmara, Transcriptional regulation, Wing development
*Correspondence: [email protected] † Guanfeng Xu and Yangqin Yi contributed equally to this work 1 Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Insect Developmental Biology and Applied Technology, Institute of Insect Science and Technology, School of Life Sciences, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
Background DNA methylation is an essential epigenetic modification found in eukaryotes [1, 2]. In mammals, about 70% cytosine (C) of the genomic CG context can be methylated by DNA methyltransferases (Dnmts) to generate 5-methylcytosine (5mC) [1, 3]. 5mC is associated with numerous biological processes including cell differentiation [4], transposon silencing [4], genomic imprinting [4, 5], X
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