DNA methyltransferase is an enzyme whose function is to catalyze the transfer of methyl groups between molecules, in this case, DNA.
There are two main types of methyltransferases, de novo and maintenance.
De Novo methyltransferases recognize something in the DNA that allows them to methylate cytosines de novo. These are expressed mainly in early embryo development and they set up the patten of methylation.
Maintenance methyltransferases add methylation to DNA when one strand is already methylated. These work throughout the life of the organism to maintain the methylation pattern that had been established by the de novo methyltransferases
DNA MTase has been shown in mice to be essential for embryonic survival (21) and has been proposed to play a role in general biological processes such as cellular aging(22), carcinogenesis(23), human genetic diseases(24), and evolution(17, 25).
DNA was precipitated in 10% trichloroacetic acid, 5 mM sodium pyrophosphate for 15 min at 4 °C and washed 5 times on a Whatman GF/C filter with 5% trichloroacetic acid, 5 mM sodium pyrophosphate, and twice with 100% ethanol(29, 30).
To demonstrate that the recombinant DNA MTase is indeed active with a preference for hemimethylated DNA, we reacted the partially purified enzyme with oligodeoxynucleotides in the presence of radioactive AdoMet, resolved the samples on agarose gels, and subjected the gels to autoradiography (Fig.
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