Eukaryotic DNA methylation as an evolutionary device

DNA methylation is catalyzed by a family of conserved DNA methyltransferases and is widespread among protists, plants, fungi and animals. It is however absent in some species and its genomic distribution varies among organisms. Sequence comparisons suggest that known and putative eukaryotic DNA methyltransferases fall into at least five structurally distinct subfamilies. Furthermore, it is now clear that DNA methylation can be involved in several functions, some of which may coexist within the same organism. It can inhibit transcription initiation, arrest transcript elongation, act as an imprinting signal, and suppress homologous recombination. On the basis of these observations, we argue that DNA methylation has been conserved during evolution because it provides unique possibilities for setting up functions of various types.