title: The impact of 5'-CG-3' methylation on the activity of different eukaryotic promoters: a comparative study.
abstract: The inhibiting or inactivating effects of position-specific promoter methylation in different viral or human cellular promoters Ad2 E2AL, SV40, LTR-MMTV, HSV-tk, TNF alpha) have been compared by in vitro 5'-CCGG-3' methylation by M-HpaII or the M-SssI DNA-methyltransferase, respectively. In most promoters, 5'-CG-3' methylation reduces activity to a few percent of that of mock-methylated controls. The number of 5'-CG-3' dinucleotides in a promoter does not strictly correlate with the extent of methylation inhibition. The LTR-MMTV promoter, which lacks 5'-CG-3' dinucleotides, is not affected by methylation. The late E2A promoter of Ad2 DNA cannot be inactivated by 5'-CCGG-3' methylation when the construct carries the strong cytomegalovirus enhancer devoid of this sequence. In contrast, 5'-CG-3' methylation shuts this promoter off even in the presence of this enhancer.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Genetik, Universität zu Köln, Germany.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Muiznieks
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Doerfler
mesh_terms: D017502:Adenovirus E2 Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D000260:Adenoviruses, Human / Q000235:genetics; D001483:Base Sequence; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D015257:DNA-Cytosine Methylases / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D008745:Methylation; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D013539:Simian virus 40 / Q000235:genetics; D014162:Transfection; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D017502:Adenovirus E2 Proteins; D004279:DNA, Viral; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D004247:DNA; C029641:DNA modification methylase HpaII; C081573:DNA modification methylase SssI; D015257:DNA-Cytosine Methylases