[Hypothesis of the initiation of DNA methylation de novo and allelic exclusion by small RNA].
We have discovered that 5'-CG-3' dinucleotide and 5'-CNG-3' trinucleotide are found in published sequences of small interfering RNA and microRNA more often than they should be found in a random sequence. This circumstance is evidence of an important biological purpose of 5'-CG-3' dinucleotides and 5'-CNG-3' trinucleotides in small RNA sequences. We suppose that small RNAs containing mentioned di- and trinucleotides participate in creation of chromatin marks of epigenetic information through high-specific search of DNA sequences liable to repression and through initiation of the methylation de novo of 5'-CG-3' and 5'-CNG-3' sites in DNA fragments, which appeared to be bound complementary with small RNA. Several genes can be inactivated simultaneously when they contain the motif which is recognized by small RNA. Allelic exclusion appears, to our opinion, as a result of initiation by small RNA of de novo DNA methylation of all alleles but one that exist in the cell. The predecessor of this small RNA is transcribed from the antiparallel allele chain. Those alleles are inactivated which antiparallel chain is less actively read by RNA-polymerase, which, as we suppose, releases DNA from attached to it small RNA in the process of transcribing. But the quantity of small RNA which is transcribed from just one allele is insufficient to overcome the level when the repression process of this allele de novo starts.
Galitskiĭ
V A
VA
D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D019175:DNA Methylation; D018900:Dinucleotide Repeats; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering / Q000235:genetics*; D022661:RNA, Untranslated; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D018911:Trinucleotide Repeats
D035683:MicroRNAs; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering; D022661:RNA, Untranslated