title: Non-catalytic functions of DNMT1.
abstract: Mammalian DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1) is essential during early embryo development. Consistent with its key role in embryogenesis, depletion of this protein in adult somatic cells promotes severe cellular dysfunctions and cell death. DNMT1 contains a highly evolutionary conserved C-terminal catalytic DNA methyltransferase domain that is thought to be the responsible for the maintenance of CpG methylation patterns in the genome. DNMT1 has also a large N-terminal region with different functional protein-protein and protein-DNA binding domains. The multi-domain N-terminal region and the abundant molecular binding patterns suggest potential non-catalytic functions for DNMT1. However, this hypothesis remains controversial and conflicting results can be found in the literature. Here, recent results presenting a functional role for DNMT1 independent of its catalytic domain are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Bioquímica, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas "Alberto Sols" CSIC-UAM, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain. jespada@iib.uam.es
authors.forename: Jesús
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Espada
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D055162:Biocatalysis; D015820:Cadherins / Q000235:genetics; D018899:CpG Islands / Q000235:genetics; D000076123:DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferase 1; D004248:DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D019175:DNA Methylation / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological
chemical_list: D015820:Cadherins; D000076123:DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferase 1; D004248:DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferases; C000619380:DNMT1 protein, human