title: Distribution, silencing potential and evolutionary impact of promoter DNA methylation in the human genome.
abstract: To gain insight into the function of DNA methylation at cis-regulatory regions and its impact on gene expression, we measured methylation, RNA polymerase occupancy and histone modifications at 16,000 promoters in primary human somatic and germline cells. We find CpG-poor promoters hypermethylated in somatic cells, which does not preclude their activity. This methylation is present in male gametes and results in evolutionary loss of CpG dinucleotides, as measured by divergence between humans and primates. In contrast, strong CpG island promoters are mostly unmethylated, even when inactive. Weak CpG island promoters are distinct, as they are preferential targets for de novo methylation in somatic cells. Notably, most germline-specific genes are methylated in somatic cells, suggesting additional functional selection. These results show that promoter sequence and gene function are major predictors of promoter methylation states. Moreover, we observe that inactive unmethylated CpG island promoters show elevated levels of dimethylation of Lys4 of histone H3, suggesting that this chromatin mark may protect DNA from methylation.
authors.affiliation: Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Maulbeerstrasse 66, CH-4058 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.forename: Ines
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hellmann
authors.forename: Michael B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Stadler
authors.forename: Liliana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ramos
authors.forename: Svante
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pääbo
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rebhan
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schübeler
mesh_terms: D001665:Binding Sites; D002843:Chromatin / Q000378:metabolism; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D018899:CpG Islands; D019175:DNA Methylation; D004259:DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase / Q000378:metabolism; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D020868:Gene Silencing; D015894:Genome, Human; D005854:Germ Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D046228:Microarray Analysis; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D002843:Chromatin; D004259:DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase