DNA methylation and gene silencing - (Jun/13/2006 )

Hi, everyone:

A lot of papers demonstrate that DNA methylation can induce the gene silence. Whether is the gene silent degree (maybe not totally silenced) related to the methylation content and site in a gene promoter region?

Thanks!

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Yes it is true that the degree and location of promoter CpG methylation is related to the level of gene expression.

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maybe the methylation happened in the CDS can also cause the gene silencing from the previous studies

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I see. thanks.

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Is it true or false that methylation on coding or downstream region outside promoter also affect the level of gene expression ?

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True. HPRT (X-linked, housekeeping gene) can have "reverse" methylation patterns, depending on whether it's on the active or inactive X-chromosome, and the pattern depends on the organism. e.g. marsupials have different patterns, but their X-inactivation is subtly different to placental mammals. If all of this is a bit confusing, don't worry; the best and brightest don't know the whole picture.

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