Both MSAP (methylation sensitive amplification polymorphism) ratio and full methylation level were the highest in bracteal leaf, and the lowest in tassel.
In the fields of epigenetics and epigenomics, DNA methylation has been drawn a special attention because of its close correlation to human development and carcinogenesis.
In infants, the level of glucocorticoid-receptor methylation is correlated with the release, in response to stress, of higher-than-normal amounts of stress hormones.
Taken together, these results suggest that glucocorticoid-receptor-gene methylation happens in the fetus in response to a mother's stress, and persists into adolescence.
Horvath and his colleagues gleaned information from 8,000 samples to chart methylation in healthy and diseased organs, tissues and cells, from fetuses to centenarians.
They found different levels of methylation between humans and primates, but the difference was bigger in samples taken from the cerebellum than from the neocortex.