Caenorhabditis elegansDNA does not contain 5-methylcytosine at any time during development or aging

Abstract
DNA, isolated from age-synchronous senescent populations of Caenorhflbditis elegans has been quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed for the presence of 5-methylcytosine. High performance liquid chromatography on two wild-type and several mutant strains of C. elegans failed to detect any 5-methylcytosine. The restriction endonuclease isoschizomers. HpaII and MapI, were used to digest genomic DNA after CaCl purification and failed to detect any 5′ cytosine methylation at any age. We conclude that C. elegans does not contain detectable (0.01 mole percent) levels of 5-methylcytosine.