title: On the spontaneous mutability of CpG sites in cultured S49 mouse lymphoma cells.
abstract: The frequent occurrence of human mutations at CpG dinucleotide sites has been attributed to cytosine methylation and hydrolytic deamination of the resulting 5-methylcytosine residue. Previously, we reported an unusually strong hotspot for spontaneous transitions at a CpG site in the gene for regulatory (R) subunit of protein kinase A in S49 mouse lymphoma cells. Now, using polymerase chain reaction-based methods to screen mutant populations for mutations at particular CpG sites, we show that two methylated CpG sites in the gene for hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase are much less mutable than the R subunit hotspot site, suggesting that different methylated CpG sites are differentially susceptible to spontaneous mutation. We also present data on spontaneous R subunit mutations in cloned populations of 5-azacytidine-treated S49 cells that had been demethylated at the hotspot site in both R subunit alleles. Of 13 independent mutants isolated from populations grown from fully demethylated cells, seven had the hotspot mutation. We conclude that CG-->TA mutations at strong CpG hotspots do not require prior methylation of CpG sites.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73190, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gan
authors.forename: Y L
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: K B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Carter
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Cauthron
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Steinberg
mesh_terms: D044503:5-Methylcytosine; D000818:Animals; D001120:Arginine / Q000235:genetics; D001374:Azacitidine / Q000378:metabolism; D003596:Cytosine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000378:metabolism; D019175:DNA Methylation; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics*; D015226:Dinucleoside Phosphates / Q000235:genetics*; D007041:Hypoxanthine Phosphoribosyltransferase / Q000235:genetics*; D008223:Lymphoma; D051379:Mice; D016296:Mutagenesis / Q000235:genetics*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: D044503:5-Methylcytosine; D001120:Arginine; D001374:Azacitidine; D003596:Cytosine; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm; D015226:Dinucleoside Phosphates; D007041:Hypoxanthine Phosphoribosyltransferase; C015772:CpG dinucleotide