Insight into DNA Methylation

Genome-wide DNA methylation and gene expression patterns provide insight into polycystic ovary syndrome development

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most common endocrine disorders in women. However, the epigenetic mechanism involved in PCOS progression remains largely unknown. Here, combining the DNA methylation profiling together with transcriptome analysis, we showed that (i) there were 7929 differentially methylated CpG sites (β > 0.1, P < 0.05) and 650 differential transcripts (fold change...

Structural insight into maintenance methylation by mouse DNA methyltransferase 1 (Dnmt1).

Methylation of cytosine in DNA plays a crucial role in development through inheritable gene silencing. The DNA methyltransferase Dnmt1 is responsible for the propagation of methylation patterns to the next generation via its preferential methylation of hemimethylated CpG sites in the genome; however, how Dnmt1 maintains methylation patterns is not fully understood. Here we report the crystal st...

Mitophagy: New Insight into the Cardiovascular Aging  

A DNA structural alphabet provides new insight into DNA flexibility

DNA is a structurally plastic molecule, and its biological function is enabled by adaptation to its binding partners. To identify the DNA structural polymorphisms that are possible in such adaptations, the dinucleotide structures of 60 000 DNA steps from sequentially nonredundant crystal structures were classified and an automated protocol assigning 44 distinct structural (conformational) class...

An Insight into T-DNA Integration Events in Medicago sativa

The molecular mechanisms of transferred DNA (T-DNA) integration into the plant genome are still not completely understood. A large number of integration events have been analyzed in different species, shedding light on the molecular mechanisms involved, and on the frequent transfer of vector sequences outside the T-DNA borders, the so-called vector backbone (VB) sequences. In this work, we char...