title: Dynamics of DNA methylation during development.
abstract: DNA methylation plays a role in the repression of gene expression in animal cells. In the mouse preimplantation embryo, most genes are unmethylated but a wave of de novo methylation prior to gastrulation generates a bimodal pattern characterized by unmethylated CpG island-containing housekeeping genes and fully modified tissue-specific genes. Demethylation of individual genes then takes place during cell type specific differentiation, and this demodification may be a required step in the process of transcriptional activation. DNA modification is also involved in the maintenance of gene repression on the inactive X chromosome in female somatic cells and the marking of parental alleles at genomically imprinted gene loci.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular Biochemistry, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brandeis
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ariel
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cedar
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000502:physiology; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D004261:DNA Replication; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian / Q000502:physiology*; D005314:Embryonic and Fetal Development; D005260:Female; D005306:Fertilization; D005775:Gastrula / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008745:Methylation; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009115:Muridae; D009865:Oocytes / Q000502:physiology; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D004247:DNA