Identification of a region of the DNMT1 methyltransferase that regulates the maintenance of genomic imprints.

ABSTRACT: Reprogramming of DNA methylation patterns during mammalian preimplantation development involves the concurrent maintenance of methylation on differentially methylated domains (DMDs) of imprinted genes and a marked reduction of global (non-DMD) genomic methylation. In the developing mammalian embryo, one allele of a DMD is unmethylated, and the opposite parental allele is methylated, having inherited this methylation from the parental gamete. The maintenance of DMDs is important for monoallelic imprinted gene expression and normal development of the embryo. Because the DNMT1 cytosine methyltransferase governs maintenance methylation in mammals, rearrangements of non-DMD, but not DMD methylation in preimplantation embryos suggest that the preimplantation DNMT1-dependent maintenance mechanism

SUBMITTER: Borowczyk E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2791569 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature