Dnmt1 is essential for egg production and embryo viability in the large milkweed bug, Oncopeltus fasciatus
Bewick AJ, Sanchez Z, Mckinney EC and others. Epigenetics & chromatin, January 2019.
Read the paper Free to read · doi:10.1186/s13072-018-0246-5
What this paper is about
RNA interference was used to knock down Dnmt1, the enzyme that maintains DNA methylation, in the ovaries of large milkweed bugs.
The bugs stopped reproducing: fewer eggs, none of them viable, and malformed nuclei in the follicle cells. One of the first functional demonstrations of what DNA methylation does in an insect.
Summarised here from the abstract below. Not the authors’ words.
Abstract
BackgroundThe function of cytosine (DNA) methylation in insects remains inconclusive due to a lack of mutant and/or genetic studies.ResultsHere, we provide evidence for the functional role of the maintenance DNA methyltransferase 1 (Dnmt1) in an insect using experimental manipulation. Through RNA interference (RNAi), we successfully posttranscriptionally knocked down Dnmt1 in ovarian tissue of the hemipteran Oncopeltus fasciatus (the large milkweed bug). Individuals depleted for Dnmt1, and subsequently DNA methylation, failed to reproduce. Eggs were inviable and declined in number, and nuclei structure of follicular epithelium was aberrant. Erasure of DNA methylation from gene or transposon element bodies did not reveal a direct causal link to steady-state mRNA levels in somatic cells. These results reveal an important function of Dnmt1 seemingly not contingent on directly controlling gene expression.ConclusionsThis study provides direct experimental evidence for a functional role of Dnmt1 in egg production and embryo viability and uncovers a trivial role, if any, for DNA methylation in control of gene expression in O. fasciatus.
Abstract reproduced from the published paper, which is licensed CC BY. Copyright remains with the authors.
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title = {Dnmt1 is essential for egg production and embryo viability in the large milkweed bug, Oncopeltus fasciatus (listing)},
author = {{Milkweed USA}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://milkweedusa.com/research/dnmt1-is-essential-for-egg-production-and-embryo-viability-2019/},
note = {Accessed DATE}
}