... development. The Drosophila genome contains a single candidate DNA methyltransferase gene that has been termed Dnmt2 . This gene belongs to a widely conserved family of putative DNA methyltransferases. However, no catalytic activity has been demonstrated for any Dnmt2-like protein yet. We have now established...

... inactivation ( Li et al., 1993a,b ; Panning and Jaenisch, 1996 ), and mutant embryos die prior to midgestation ( Li et al., 1992 ). There is also genetic evidence for a second specialized DNA methyltransferase that participates in the silencing of newly integrated retroviral DNA ( Lei et al., 1996 ; Lengauer...