Differential methylation of microsatellite and minisatellite loci in rice

Microsatellites and minisatellites are the most informative molecular genet ic markers and dispersed throughout the genome. Methylation of cytosine and adenine residues is associated with various biological phenomena. We show the microsatellite and minisatellite loci in rice to be methylated differen tially in various rice cultivars. We propose that few of these differential methylations might be associated with the morphological variations observe d in rice cultivars and wild rice species. Since microsatellites and minisa tellites have been suggested to be hot spots of recombination, these methyl ations in general could be involved in maintaining genome stability by supp ressing the high levels of recombination.