A team led by Prof. Gu Xiaofeng at the Biotechnology Research Institute of CAAS published a paper titled "DNA N6-adenine methylation in Arabidopsis thaliana" in Developmental Cell. In the research, 6mA was found to be a potentially epigenetic mark in terrestrial plants. It was the first revealing of a genome-wide distribution and biological functions of 6mA methylation in plant. The study opens up a new area for comprehensively analyzing the mechanism of DNA methylation control of plant development and environmental adaptability.

Distribution pattern of 6mA methylation in genomic DNA of 9-day-old Col plants