Cytosine methylation and the ecology of intragenomic parasites.

@article{citeulike:79861, abstract = {Most of the 5-methylcytosine in mammalian DNA resides in transposons, which are specialized intragenomic parasites that represent at least 35\% of the genome. Transposon promoters are inactive when methylated and, over time, C-->T transition mutations at methylated sites destroy many transposons. Apart from that subset of genes subject to X inactivation and genomic imprinting, no cellular gene in a non-expressing tissue has been proven to be methylated in a pattern that prevents transcription. It has become increasingly difficult to hold that reversible promoter methylation is commonly involved in developmental gene control; instead, suppression of parasitic sequence elements appears to be the primary function of cytosine methylation, with crucial secondary roles in allele-specific gene expression as seen in X inactivation and genomic imprinting.}, address = {Department of Genetics and Development, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA. jay14@columbia.edu}, author = {Yoder, J. A. and Walsh, C. P. and Bestor, T. H. }, citeulike-article-id = {79861}, issn = {0168-9525}, journal = {Trends Genet}, keywords = {methylation, review, transposon}, month = {August}, number = {8}, pages = {335--340}, posted-at = {2008-01-25 04:36:59}, priority = {2}, title = {Cytosine methylation and the ecology of intragenomic parasites.}, url = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9260521}, volume = {13}, year = {1997} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:79861 L3 - citeulike-article-id:79861 TI - Cytosine methylation and the ecology of intragenomic parasites. JF - Trends Genet VL - 13 IS - 8 SP - 335 EP - 340 AD - Department of Genetics and Development, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA. jay14@columbia.edu SN - 0168-9525 N2 - Most of the 5-methylcytosine in mammalian DNA resides in transposons, which are specialized intragenomic parasites that represent at least 35% of the genome. Transposon promoters are inactive when methylated and, over time, C-->T transition mutations at methylated sites destroy many transposons. Apart from that subset of genes subject to X inactivation and genomic imprinting, no cellular gene in a non-expressing tissue has been proven to be methylated in a pattern that prevents transcription. It has become increasingly difficult to hold that reversible promoter methylation is commonly involved in developmental gene control; instead, suppression of parasitic sequence elements appears to be the primary function of cytosine methylation, with crucial secondary roles in allele-specific gene expression as seen in X inactivation and genomic imprinting. KW - methylation KW - review KW - transposon AU - Yoder, JA AU - Walsh, CP AU - Bestor, TH PY - 1997/08// UR - http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9260521 ER -