Journal article
Genomic patterns of DNA methylation: targets and function of an epigenetic mark.
- Weber M Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Maulbeerstrasse 66, CH-4058 Basel, Switzerland.
- Schübeler D
- 2007-05-01
Published in:
- Current opinion in cell biology. - 2007
English
Methylation of cytosines can mediate epigenetic gene silencing and is the only known DNA modification in eukaryotes. Recent efforts to map DNA methylation across mammalian genomes revealed limited DNA methylation at regulatory regions but widespread methylation in intergenic regions and repeats. This is consistent with the idea that hypermethylation is the default epigenetic state and serves in maintaining genome integrity. DNA methylation patterns at regulatory regions are generally stable, but a minor subset of regulatory regions show variable DNA methylation between cell types, suggesting an additional dynamic component. Such promoter de novo methylation might be involved in the maintenance rather than the initiation of silencing of defined genes during development. How frequently such dynamic methylation occurs, its biological relevance and the pathways involved deserve investigation.
- Language
-
- English
- Open access status
- closed
- Identifiers
-
- DOI 10.1016/j.ceb.2007.04.011
- PMID 17466503
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/165216
Statistics
Document views: 4
File downloads: