Locally correlated kinetics of post-replication DNA methylation reveals processivity and region specificity in DNA methylation maintenance.

ABSTRACT: DNA methylation occurs predominantly on cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) dinucleotides in the mammalian genome, and the methylation landscape is maintained over mitotic cell division. It has been posited that coupling of maintenance methylation activity among neighbouring CpGs is critical to stability over cellular generations; however, the mechanism is unclear. We used mathematical models and stochastic simulation to analyse data from experiments that probe genome-wide methylation of nascent DNA post-replication in cells. We find that DNA methylation maintenance rates on individual CpGs are locally correlated, and the degree of this correlation varies by genomic regional context. By using theory of protein diffusion along DNA, we show that exponential decay of methylation rate correlation

SUBMITTER: Ren H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9597173 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature