The methylation patterns of chromosomal integration regions influence gene activity of transferred DNA in Petunia hybrida

The regions of integration of a transferred DNA-fragment from three transgenic Petunia hybrida plants were analysed for their influence on the expression of the foreign DNA. Each of the three transformants, lines 16, 17 and 24, contained a fragment of a plasmid on which two genes were located, an npt-II gene which renders the plants resistant to kanamycin and the A1 gene from Zea mays, a visible marker gene that leads to the production of a brick red anthocyanin pigment in the flowers. Inactivation of both genes in line 16 is associated with integration into a region of highly repetitive DNA, while the integration sites of the other two lines were essentially unique. The integration regions of lines 17 and 24, both of which show expression of the foreign genes at characteristically different intensities, showed a distinct methylation pattern that was stably conserved for these regions in both transgenic and wild-type plants. The characteristic methylation pattern of the two integration regions was also imposed on the border region of the integrated fragments and might thus be responsible for the differences in the intensity of gene expression observed among the two lines.