Decrease in cytosine methylation at CpG island shores and increase in DNA fragmentation during zebrafish aging.

ABSTRACT: Age-related changes in DNA methylation have been demonstrated in mammals, but it remains unclear as to the generality of this phenomenon in vertebrates, which is a criterion for the fundamental cause of senescence. Here we showed that the zebrafish genome gradually and clearly lost methylcytosine in somatic cells, but not in male germ cells during aging, and that age-dependent hypomethylation preferentially occurred at a particular domain called the CpG island shore, which is associated with vertebrates' genes and has been shown to be hypomethylated in humans with age. We also found that two CpG island shores hypomethylated in zebrafish oocytes were de novo methylated in fertilized eggs, which suggests that the zebrafish epigenome is reset upon fertilization, enabling new generations to re

SUBMITTER: Shimoda N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3889898 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature