Molecular
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Institute of Molecular Development LLC
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The Role of DNA Methylation in Mammalian Epigenetics
Peter A. Jones, Daiya Takai
The Science, August 2001,
293: 1068 - 1070.
In mammals, cytosine methylation provides a heritable mechanism for altering DNA-protein
interactions to assist in
gene silencing. Genes can be transcribed from methylation-free promoters even though adjacent
transcribed and nontranscribed regions are extensively methylated. Gene promoters can be used
and regulated while keeping noncoding DNA, including transposable elements, suppressed.
Methylation is also used for long-term epigenetic silencing of X-linked and imprinted genes and
can either increase or decrease the level of transcription, depending on whether the methylation
inactivates a positive or negative regulatory element.
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Molecular
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