title: Non-CpG methylation occurs in the regulatory region of the Sry gene.
abstract: The Sry (sex determining region on Y chromosome) gene is a master gene for sex determination. We previously reported that the Sry gene has tissue-dependent and differentially methylated regions (T-DMRs) by analyzing the DNA methylation states at CpG sites in the promoter regions. In this study, we found unique non-CpG methylation at the internal cytosine in the 5'-CCTGG-3' pentanucleotide sequence in the Sry T-DMR. This non-CpG methylation was detected in four mouse strains (ICR, BALB/c, DBA2 and C3H), but not in two strains (C57BL/6 and 129S1), suggesting that the CCTGG methylation is tentative and unstable. Interestingly, this CCTGG methylation was associated with demethylation of the CpG sites in the Sry T-DMR in the developmental process. A methylation-mediated promoter assay showed that the CCTGG methylation promotes gene expression. Our finding shows that non-CpG methylation has unique characteristic and is still conserved in mammals.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cellular Biochemistry, Animal Resource Sciences/Veterinary Medical Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan.
authors.forename: Koichiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nishino
authors.forename: Naoko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hattori
authors.forename: Shun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Yoshikazu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Arai
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Andras
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nagy
authors.forename: Kunio
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shiota
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018899:CpG Islands / Q000235:genetics; D019175:DNA Methylation / Q000502:physiology*; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian; D005260:Female; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008811:Mice, Inbred DBA; D008813:Mice, Inbred ICR; D011247:Pregnancy; D012045:Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D051876:Sex-Determining Region Y Protein / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D051876:Sex-Determining Region Y Protein; C497746:Sry protein, mouse