This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Kass, S U Articles by Adams, R L Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Kass, S U Articles by Adams, R L

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Mol Cell Biol. 1993 December; 13(12): 7372-7379

Inactive chromatin spreads from a focus of methylation.

Department of Biochemistry, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom.

ABSTRACT

The detailed mechanisms of inhibition of transcription by DNA methylation are still unknown, but it has become obvious that the formation of chromatin plays an important role in this process. Using an approach enabling us to methylate, in vitro, chosen regions in a plasmid, we now show that specific methylation of nonpromoter sequences results in transcriptional inhibition of a reporter gene construct and that this inhibition is independent of the position of the methylated region within the plasmid. In plasmid minichromosomes containing a short region of methylated DNA, both methylated and unmethylated sequences are protected from limited MspI digestion. Our results show that inactive chromatin is present at unmethylated regions in partially methylated minichromosomes and can thereby inhibit gene expression. Spreading of the inactive chromatin is not inhibited by the presence of active promoters, nor is it a consequence of transcriptional inactivity.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Okitsu, C. Y., Hsieh, C.-L. (2007). DNA Methylation Dictates Histone H3K4 Methylation. Mol. Cell. Biol. 27: 2746-2757 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Auriol, E., Billard, L.-M., Magdinier, F., Dante, R. (2005). Specific binding of the methyl binding domain protein 2 at the BRCA1-NBR2 locus. Nucleic Acids Res 33: 4243-4254 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Bhende, P. M., Seaman, W. T., Delecluse, H.-J., Kenney, S. C. (2005). BZLF1 Activation of the Methylated Form of the BRLF1 Immediate-Early Promoter Is Regulated by BZLF1 Residue 186. J. Virol. 79: 7338-7348 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Strathdee, G., Davies, B.R., Vass, J.K., Siddiqui, N., Brown, R. (2004). Cell type-specific methylation of an intronic CpG island controls expression of the MCJ gene. Carcinogenesis 25: 693-701 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Warnick, C. T., Dabbas, B., Ilstrup, S. J., Ford, C. D., Strait, K. A. (2003). Cell Type-Dependent Regulation of hMLH1 Promoter Activity Is Influenced by the Presence of Multiple Redundant Elements. Mol Cancer Res 1: 610-618 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Irvine, R. A., Lin, I. G., Hsieh, C.-L. (2002). DNA Methylation Has a Local Effect on Transcription and Histone Acetylation. Mol. Cell. Biol. 22: 6689-6696 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Curradi, M., Izzo, A., Badaracco, G., Landsberger, N. (2002). Molecular Mechanisms of Gene Silencing Mediated by DNA Methylation. Mol. Cell. Biol. 22: 3157-3173 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Lorincz, M. C., Schubeler, D., Groudine, M. (2001). Methylation-Mediated Proviral Silencing Is Associated with MeCP2 Recruitment and Localized Histone H3 Deacetylation. Mol. Cell. Biol. 21: 7913-7922 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• KARYMOV, M. A., TOMSCHIK, M., LEUBA, S. H., CAIAFA, P., ZLATANOVA, J. (2001). DNA methylation-dependent chromatin fiber compaction in vivo and in vitro: requirement for linker histone. FASEB J. 15: 2631-2641 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Benjamin, D., Jost, J.-P. (2001). Reversal of methylation-mediated repression with short-chain fatty acids: evidence for an additional mechanism to histone deacetylation. Nucleic Acids Res 29: 3603-3610 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Pao, M. M., Tsutsumi, M., Liang, G., Uzvolgyi, E., Gonzales, F. A., Jones, P. A. (2001). The endothelin receptor B (EDNRB) promoter displays heterogeneous, site specific methylation patterns in normal and tumor cells. Hum Mol Genet 10: 903-910 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Hu, J.-F., Pham, J., Dey, I., Li, T., Vu, T. H., Hoffman, A. R. (2000). Allele-Specific Histone Acetylation Accompanies Genomic Imprinting of the Insulin-Like Growth Factor II Receptor Gene. Endocrinology 141: 4428-4435 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• ZLATANOVA, J., CAIAFA, P., VAN HOLDE, K. (2000). Linker histone binding and displacement: versatile mechanism for transcriptional regulation. FASEB J. 14: 1697-1704 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Arnaud, P., Goubely, C., Pélissier, T., Deragon, J.-M. (2000). SINE Retroposons Can Be Used In Vivo as Nucleation Centers for De Novo Methylation. Mol. Cell. Biol. 20: 3434-3441 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Heslop-Harrison, J. S. (2000). Comparative Genome Organization in Plants: From Sequence and Markers to Chromatin and Chromosomes. Plant Cell 12: 617-636 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Robertson, K. D., A.Jones, P. (2000). DNA methylation: past, present and future directions. Carcinogenesis 21: 461-467 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Wolffe, A. P., Matzke, M. A. (1999). Epigenetics: Regulation Through Repression. Science 286: 481-486 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Bender, C. M., Gonzalgo, M. L., Gonzales, F. A., Nguyen, C. T., Robertson, K. D., Jones, P. A. (1999). Roles of Cell Division and Gene Transcription in the Methylation of CpG Islands. Mol. Cell. Biol. 19: 6690-6698 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• ZARDO, G., MARENZI, S., PERILLI, M., CAIAFA, P. (1999). Inhibition of poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation introduces an anomalous methylation pattern in transfected foreign DNA. FASEB J. 13: 1518-1522 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Wong, D. J., Foster, S. A., Galloway, D. A., Reid, B. J. (1999). Progressive Region-Specific De Novo Methylation of the p16 CpG Island in Primary Human Mammary Epithelial Cell Strains during Escape from M0 Growth Arrest. Mol. Cell. Biol. 19: 5642-5651 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Khosla, S., Aitchison, A., Gregory, R., Allen, N. D., Feil, R. (1999). Parental Allele-Specific Chromatin Configuration in a Boundary-Imprinting-Control Element Upstream of the Mouse H19 Gene. Mol. Cell. Biol. 19: 2556-2566 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Hendrich, B., Bird, A. (1998). Identification and Characterization of a Family of Mammalian Methyl-CpG Binding Proteins. Mol. Cell. Biol. 18: 6538-6547 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Fitzpatrick, D. R., Shirley, K. M., McDonald, L. E., Bielefeldt-Ohmann, H., Kay, G. F., Kelso, A. (1998). Distinct Methylation of the Interferon gamma  (IFN-gamma ) and Interleukin 3 (IL-3) Genes in Newly Activated Primary CD8+ T Lymphocytes: Regional IFN-gamma Promoter Demethylation and mRNA Expression Are Heritable in CD44highCD8+ T Cells. J. Exp. Med. 188: 103-117 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Feil, R., Boyano, M. D., Allen, N. D., Kelsey, G. (1997). Parental Chromosome-specific Chromatin Conformation in the Imprinted U2af1-rs1 Gene in the Mouse. J. Biol. Chem. 272: 20893-20900 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Puech, A., Dupressoir, A., Loireau, M.-P., Mattei, M.-G., Heidmann, T. (1997). Characterization of Two Age-induced Intracisternal A-particle-related Transcripts in the Mouse Liver. TRANSCRIPTIONAL READ-THROUGH INTO AN OPEN READING FRAME WITH SIMILARITIES TO THE YEAST CCR4 TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR. J. Biol. Chem. 272: 5995-6003 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Pieper, R. O., Patel, S., Ting, S. A., Futscher, B. W., Costello, J. F. (1996). Methylation of CpG Island Transcription Factor Binding Sites Is Unnecessary for Aberrant Silencing of the Human MGMT Gene. J. Biol. Chem. 271: 13916-13924 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Gorzowski, J. J., Eckerley, C. A., Halgren, R. G., Mangurten, A. B., Phillips, B. (1995). Methylation-associated Transcriptional Silencing of the Major Histocompatibility Complex-linked hsp70 Genes in Mouse Cell Lines. J. Biol. Chem. 270: 26940-26949 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Campoy, F. J., Meehan, R. R., McKay, S., Nixon, J., Bird, A. (1995). Binding of Histone H1 to DNA Is Indifferent to Methylation at CpG Sequences. J. Biol. Chem. 270: 26473-26481 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Nightingale, K., Wolffe, A. P. (1995). Methylation at CpG Sequences Does Not Influence Histone H1 Binding to a Nucleosome Including a Xenopus borealis 5 S rRNA Gene. J. Biol. Chem. 270: 4197-4200 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Ferguson, A. T., Evron, E., Umbricht, C. B., Pandita, T. K., Chan, T. A., Hermeking, H., Marks, J. R., Lambers, A. R., Futreal, P. A., Stampfer, M. R., Sukumar, S. (2000). High frequency of hypermethylation at the 14-3-3 sigma locus leads to gene silencing in breast cancer. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97: 6049-6054 [Abstract] [Full Text]