Department of Physics, Bio-X Program, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
J Am Chem Soc. 2010 Feb 17;132(6):1782-3. doi: 10.1021/ja910264z.
Cytosine methylation on CpG dinucleotides is an essential epigenetic modification in eukaryotes. How DNA methylation modulates nucleosome structure and dynamics has been a long-standing question. We implemented a single-molecule method to monitor the effects of DNA methylation on the structure and dynamics of mononucleosomes. Our studies show that DNA methylation induces a more compact and rigid nucleosome structure, providing a physical basis for how DNA methylation might contribute to regulating chromatin structure.
胞嘧啶在 CpG 二核苷酸上的甲基化是真核生物中一种重要的表观遗传修饰。DNA 甲基化如何调节核小体结构和动力学一直是一个长期存在的问题。我们采用了一种单分子方法来监测 DNA 甲基化对单核小体结构和动力学的影响。我们的研究表明,DNA 甲基化诱导核小体结构更加紧凑和刚性,为 DNA 甲基化如何有助于调节染色质结构提供了物理基础。