Journal
CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR LIFE SCIENCES
Volume 66, Issue 4, Pages 596-612Publisher
SPRINGER BASEL AG
DOI: 10.1007/s00018-008-8432-4
Keywords
DNA methylation; histone modification; chromatin; methylation spreading; silencing
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
DNA and histone methylation are linked and subjected to mitotic inheritance in mammals. Yet how methylation is propagated and maintained between successive cell divisions is not fully understood. A series of enzyme families that can add methylation marks to cytosine nucleobases, and lysine and arginine amino acid residues has been discovered. Apart from methyltransferases, there are also histone modification enzymes and accessory proteins, which can facilitate and/or target epigenetic marks. Several lysine and arginine demethylases have been discovered recently, and the presence of an active DNA demethylase is speculated in mammalian cells. A mammalian methyl DNA binding protein MBD2 and de novo DNA methyltransferase DNMT3A and DNMT3B are shown experimentally to possess DNA demethylase activity. Thus, complex mammalian epigenetic mechanisms appear to be dynamic yet reversible along with a well-choreographed set of events that take place during mammalian development.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available