Table of Contents
What is the purpose of demethylation?
The DNA demethylation pathway plays a significant role in DNA epigenetics. This pathway removes the methyl group from cytosine, which is involved in the oxidation of 5-methylcytosine to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC) by ten-eleven translocation (TET) proteins (Table 1.2).
What is the most common form of methylation?
The most common methylation event is the methylation of cytosine to form 5-methylcytosine. DNA methylation typically occurs at cytosines directly upstream of guanines, or CpG dinucleotides. Cytosine is both methylated and demethylated by a variety of enzymes.
What Methylates H3K27?
Up to date, PRC2 seems to be the only, or the most important, methyltransferase for H3K27 in mammalian cells. Although the association of H3K27me3 and gene repression has been extensively studied, the functional role of H3K27me1 and H3K27me2 in gene regulation has only recently been revealed.
Does methylation activate or deactivate?
Due to its ability to either activate or repress the recruitment of regulatory proteins to the chromatin, histone methylation plays an integral role in regulating DNA transcription in the cell.
What is the difference between DNA methylation and demethylation?
DNA methylation is removed through the process of demethylation, which can occur both passively and actively, with 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) being a measurable intermediate of one of the active demethylation pathways (Branco et al., 2012; Kohli and Zhang, 2013).
What happens in DNA demethylation?
Active DNA demethylation refers to an enzymatic process that removes or modifies the methyl group from 5mC. By contrast, passive DNA demethylation refers to loss of 5mC during successive rounds of replication in the absence of functional DNA methylation maintenance machinery.
How does DNA demethylation affect gene expression?
DNA methylation regulates gene expression by recruiting proteins involved in gene repression or by inhibiting the binding of transcription factor(s) to DNA.
Why are CpG sites methylated?
The presence of multiple methylated CpG sites in CpG islands of promoters causes stable silencing of genes. Silencing of a gene may be initiated by other mechanisms, but this is often followed by methylation of CpG sites in the promoter CpG island to cause the stable silencing of the gene.
What causes CpG island methylation?
CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) is a subset of colorectal cancers that happen through an epigenetic instability pathway and that are characterized by vast hypermethylation of promoter CpG island sites, resulting in the inactivation of several tumor suppressor genes or other tumor-related genes (17).