During early embryo development, Oct-4 is an important transcription factor for the early differentiation. The present study was first examined methylation status in distal enhancer and promoter region of Oct-4 during mouse pre-implantation embryo development. In oocyte and sperm, high methylation was observed in both distal and proximal of promoter in Oct-4. Following fertilization, relatively high methylation level remained until 8-cell stage embryos, but decreased at the morula and blastocyst stage. Specific gene knock down of Oct-4 by siRNA injection into zygote induced higher methylation rates of both distal and proximal region ofpromoter of Oct-4. These results suggest a functional link between the DNA methylation status of distal and promoter region in the Oct-4 gene and the gene sequence-specific transcriptional silencing by exogenous siRNA injection during mouse pre- implantation embryos.

There are replete numbers of reports which have apparently shown that established patterns of methylation are critical for normal mammalian development. Here, we report expression of the DNA methyltransferases (Dnmts) family during mouse early development. Transcription of Dnmt1o occurs in one-cell and morula stage embryos, whereas Dnmt1s transcripts were detectable in all cells and tissues examined during the study. Dnmt3a1 transcript was detected in all cells and Dnmt3a2 transcript was particularly detected in the oocyte and 1-cell stages. Low level Dnmt3b1 transcripts were expressed ubiquitously in oocyte, 1-cell, and preimplantation embryos except 2～4 cell stages. Dnmt3b3 transcripts were only detected in E7.5 embryo and ovary. Furthermore, Dnmt3l transcripts were detectable in all cells and tissues examined. Unlike Dnmt1, both Dnmt3a and Dnmt3b proteins existed in the nucleus of preimplantation embryos till the morula stage. These Results suggest that differences Dnmts expression level exist and genomic DNA methylation patterns may be determined partly through differential expression of Dnmts during early development.

SET (Suppressor of variegation, Enhancer of zeste, and the Trithorax) domain-containing proteins are known to have methyltransferase activity at lysine residues of histone proteins. In this study, we identified a novel SET domain-containing protein from mouse and named Kodo7. Indeed, Kodo7 has methyltransferase activity at K9 residue of the H3 protein as demonstrated by a histone methyl-transferse activity assay using GST-tagged Kodo7. Confocal microscopy showed that Kodo7 is co-localized with histones in the nucleus. Interestingly, ectopic expression of Kodo7 by transient transfection induced cell death and treatment of the transfectants with a caspase-3 inhibitor, Ac-DEVD-AFC decreased Kodo7-induced apoptosis. These results suggest that Kodo7 induces apoptotic cell death through increased methylation of histones leading to transcriptional repression.

Expression of invasion/metastasis suppressor, E-cadherin, is reduced in many types of human carcinomas. Although somatic and germline mutations in the CDH1, which encodes the human E-cadherin, have frequently been reported in cases with diffuse gastric and lobular breast cancers, irreversible genetic inactivations are rare in other human carcinomas. Recently, it has been well documented that some genes in human cancers may be inactivated by altered CpG methylation. Herein, we determined the expression and methylation status of E-cadherin in oral squamous cell carcinoma(SCC) by immunohistochemistry and methylation-specific PCR. The expression of E-cadherin was significantly higher in the well-differentiated oral SCCs than the moderately or poorly differentiated ones. None of eight tested benign epithelial hyperplasias showed aberrant methylation, whereas five of 12 oral squamous cell carcinomas showed aberrant methylation. When we compared E-cadherin expression with methylation status, oral SCCs with normal methylation showed a higher expression of E-cadherin than those with methylation. These findings suggest that aberrant CpG methylation of CDH1 promoter region is closely associated with transcriptional inactivation and might be involved in tumor progression of the oral mucosa.

DNA methylation at CpG sites, which is a epigenetic modification, is associated with gene expression without change of DNA sequences. During early mouse embryogenesis, dynamic changes of DNA methylation occur. In this study, DNA methylation patterns of porcine embryos produced in vivo and in vitro were examined at various developmental stages by the immunocytochemical staining method. Interestingly, active demethylation was not observed on the paternal pronucleus of porcine zygotes. However, differences were detected in the passive demethylation process between in vivo and in vitro embryos. There was no change in the DNA methylation state until the blastocyst stage of in vivo embryos, whereas partial demethylation was observed in several blastomeres from a 4 cell stage to a morula stage of in vitro embryos. The whole genome of inner cell mass (ICM) and trophectoderm (TE) cells in porcine blastocysts were evenly methylated without de novo methylation. Our findings demonstrate that genome-wide demethylation does not occur in pig embryos during preimplantation development unlike murine and bovine embryos. It indicates that the machinery regulating epigenetic reprogramming may be different between species.

p16INK4A and p15INK4B tumor suppressor genes are frequently altered in various human tumors. Hypermethylation of the promoter region of p16INK4A and p15INK4B seem to be the major mechanism of inactivation. To determine whether the change in p16INK4A and p15INK4B methylation status occur in oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs) and benign oral epithelial hyperplasias, we analyzed 46 OSCCs and 20 benign oral epithelial hyperplasias by methylation-specific PCR. We also analyzed a subset of the samples for p16INK4A and p15INK4B protein expression by immunohistochemistry. The promoter region of p15INK4B was hypermethylated in 13 specimens of the 15 finally analyzed OSCCs and three specimens of the five analyzed benign oral epithelial hyperplasias. By immunohistochemical analysis, we confirmed the loss of p15INK4B expression of all hypermethylated specimens. The promoter region of p16INK4A was amplified by both an unmethylated- and a methylated-specific primers in just one OSCCs. The remaining specimens including 11 OSCCs and four benign oral epithelial hyperplasias were normally methylated. By immunohistochemistry, we analyzed the loss of p16INK4A expression in seven specimens of the 12 OSCCs and two specimens of the four benign oral epithelial hyperplasias. Except for one OSCC, however, all specimens showing loss of expression were normally methylated. These results suggest that loss of p16INK4A and p15INK4B protein expression play an important role in the development of both OSCCs and benign oral epithelial hyperplasias.

Gene expression is regulated by DNA and histone methylation by DNA and histone methyltransferases, respectively. In animal system, DNA methyltransferase with CG methylation activity is modified by SUMO conjugation and then its activity was increased, which means that the activity of DNA methyltransferase is modulated by posttranslational modification. so Chromatin remodeling is a new concept for expression of controlling of gene function. We thus analyzed the effect of E3 SUMO ligase AtSIZ1 in CMT3 (chromometnylase 3)-mediated genome methylation by next-generation sequencing (NGS), methyl binding domain MeDIP-sequencing and gene analysis using siz1-2 and cmt3 mutants. we carried out CG-enrich analysis by MeDIP sequencing revealed that the methylation level of the genome including transposons was significantly low in siz1-2 mutants compared to wild-type. Result showed the genes regulated by methylation, that genes related of embryo and root development, cellulose metabolism, and post-translational modifications. All of our data indicate that the methyltransfearse activity of CMT3 may be able to be regulated by AtSIZ1 and thereby CMT3-mediated gene expression and plant development also can be controlled by E3 SUMO ligase activity. Besides, our data also suggest that ammonium (NH4+) can stimulate AtSIZ1- and CMT3- mediated DNA methylation.

후성유전학적 조절은 DNA 서열상의 변화 없이도 유전자의 기능을 변화시킬 수 있는 현상을 뜻한다. 염색체의 후성유전학적 상태는 히스톤 변형, DNA 변형 그리고 RNAi에 의한 유전자 침묵 등에 의해 조절된다. 본 총설에서는 배아줄기세포에서의 후성 유전학적 조절에 영향을 주는 요인으로서 히스톤(histone)의 메틸화에 초점을 맞추었다. 배아줄기세포에서 발현되는 유전자의 조절에는 두 가지 단백질 복합체가 관여한다. Polycomb repressive c

DNA 메틸화 (DNA methylation)는 유전자의 발현을 조절하는 대표적인 후생학적 조절기작 (epigenetic regulation) 중에 하나이다. DNA 메틸화 양상은 생식세포 형성과정 및 배 발생단계에서 탈메틸화 (demethylation)와 de novo 메틸화의 드라마틱한 변화가 일어난다. 또한 이러한 DNA 메틸화는 배아줄기세포 (embryonic stem cells, ESCs)에서 특징적인 양상을 보이는 것으로 알려져 있다. 본 연구에서는 생쥐 수정란 유래 배아줄기세포와 체세포핵이식 배아줄기세포 (nuclear transplanted ESCs)를 이용해서 대표적 각인유전자 (imprinting genes)로 알려진 Snrpn, Igf2r, H19 유전자들에 대한 메틸화 양상을 알아보고자 하였다. 연구 결과 H19 유전자에 대해서는 DNA 메틸화 양상은 수정란 유래 배아줄기세포와 체세포핵이식 배아줄기세포에서 비슷한 경향을 보였으나, Snrpn과 Igf2r의 경우에는 체세포핵이식 배아줄기세포에서 과메틸화 (hypermethylation) 경향을 보였다.

It has been hypothesized that efficient exclusion of methylated retrotransposons and repeated DNA region is one of the rapid and cost-effective approaches for comprehensive gene discovery in large genome size of maize. Three kinds of methylation-sensitive restriction enzymes, HapII, MspI and McrBC, were used to identify the restriction frequency of cytosine methylation sites in maize genome. Roughly 60% of total maize genomic DNA was restricted less than 500bp by McrBC, and the most of restricted small size fraction was composed retrotransposon. In order to validate the efficient construction of gene-rich shotgun library, we compare two gene-rich methyl-filtration shotgun libraries using in vivo and in vitro methyl-filtration system. The size selected DNA fraction by Sau3A-McrBC enzyme treated was very stable and has not appeared modification in E. coli, but most insert DNA size of partially digested with Sau3A were decrease less than 500bp by bacterial methylation-modification system. In compare of retroelements portion, A 44.6% of the sequences were retroelement in unmethyl-filtered library, and the most of them was Copia type, such as Prem, Opie and Ji. The portion of retroelement was drastically decreased to 25% and 20% by in vivo and in vitro filtration system, respectively.