DNA demethylation by DNA repair
Name
Gehring_TIG_2009.pdf
Description
main article
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257.68 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Gehring, Mary
Reik, Wolf
Henikoff, Steven
Date Issued
February 2009
Journal
Trends in Genetics
Publisher
Elsevier Science Publishers
Citation
Gehring, Mary, Wolf Reik, and Steven Henikoff. “DNA demethylation by DNA repair.” Trends in Genetics 25 (2009): 82-90.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Active DNA demethylation underlies key facets of reproduction in flowering plants and mammals and serves a general genome housekeeping function in plants. A family of 5-methylcytosine DNA glycosylases catalyzes plant demethylation via the well-known DNA base-excision-repair process. Although the existence of active demethylation has been known for a longer time in mammals, the means of achieving it remain murky and mammals lack counterparts to the plant demethylases. Several intriguing experiments have indicated, but not conclusively proven, that DNA repair is also a plausible mechanism for animal demethylation. Here, we examine what is known from flowering plants about the pathways and function of enzymatic demethylation and discuss possible mechanisms whereby DNA repair might also underlie global demethylation in mammals.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tig.2008.12.001
