The necessary amplification step in bacteria of any plasmid currently used
in DNA immunization or gene therapy introduces modification in the nucleoti
de sequence of plasmid DNA used in gene transfer. These changes affect the
adenine and the internal cytosine in respectively all of the GATC and CC(A/
T)GG sequences. These modifications which introduce 6-methyladenine and 5-m
ethylcytosine in plasmidic DNA are the consequence of the existence of the
bacterial modification systems Dam and Dcm. In eucaryotes, the presence of
B-methylcytosine at dinucleotides -CG- is involved in silencing gene expres
sion, bud the possible consequences of the presence of the bacterial G(m)AT
C and (CC)-C-m(A/T)GG sequences in the plasmids used in gene transfer exper
iments are presently unknown. Since the possibility exists to obtain plasmi
d DNA lacking this specific bacterial pattern of methylation by using (dam(
-), dcm(-)) bacteria we performed experiments to compare in vitro and in vi
vo gene transfer efficiency of a pCMV-luc reporter plasmid amplified either
in the JM109 (dam(+), dcm(+)) or JM110 (dam(-), dcm(-)) bacteria. Data obt
ained demonstrated that the presence of 6-methyladenine in GATC sequences a
nd 5-methylcytosine in the second C of CC(A/T)GG motifs does not reduce the
levels of luciferase activity detected following in vitro or in vivo gene
transfer. On the contrary, gene transfer with a pCMV-luc amplified in JM109
(dam(+), dcm(+)) bacteria gives greater amounts of luciferase than the sam
e transfection performed with a plasmid amplified in the mutated JM110 (dam
(-), dcm(-)) counterpart. Therefore, these data do not suggest that the use
of (dam(-), dcm(-)) bacteria to amplify plasmid DNA may increase gene tran
sfer efficiency. However, the persistence of the use of (dam(+) dcm(+)) bac
teria in order to amplify plasmid DNA raises the question of the possible b
iological consequences of the introduction of the bacterial G(m)ATC and (CC
)-C-m(A/T)GG sequences in eukaryotic cells or organisms. (C) 2000 Academic
Press.