BACKGROUND We recently showed that enzymes of the TET family convert 5-mC to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC) in DNA. 5-hmC is present at high levels in embryonic stem cells and Purkinje neurons. The methylation status of cytosines is typically assessed by reaction with sodium bisulfite followed by PCR amplification. Reaction with sodium bisulfite promotes cytosine deamination, whereas 5-methylc...

Modified triplex-forming oligonucleotides distinguish 5-methyl cytosine from unmethylated cytosine in DNA duplexes by differences in triplex melting temperatures. The discrimination is sequence-specific; dramatic differences in stabilisation are seen for CpA methylation, whereas CpG methylation is not detected. This direct detection of DNA methylation constitutes a new approach for epigenetic a...

The reaction of hydrazine with the cytosine residues of DNA yields 3-ureidopyrazole, in approximately 50% yield, in addition to the expected 3-aminopyrazole. This product has been identified by ultraviolet, infrared, nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectroscopy. A product of the reaction of hydrazine hydrate with cytosine, formulated by others as NN'-di-(3-pyrazolyl) hydrazine, has been ide...

The combined treatment of cultures of human embryonic lung cells with herpes simplex virus type 2 and cytosine arabinoside produced a significantly increased number of cells containing multiple chromatid and chromosome breaks. The incidence of such cells was found to be approximately two and one half times greater than the additive effects of virus and cytosine arabinoside induced separately an...

5-Methylcytosine was distinguished from cytosine using the large difference of their osmium oxidation rates, and this reaction was applied to detection of the cytosine methylation status at a specific site of a long sequence using the formation of a bulge structure by hybridization with a guide DNA.

Background and Aims Sub-individual variation in traits of homologous structures has multiple ecological consequences for individuals and populations. Assessing the evolutionary significance of such effects requires an improved knowledge of the mechanisms underlying within-plant phenotypic heterogeneity. The hypothesis that continuous within-plant variation in some phenotypic traits can be assoc...

The prokaryotic DNA(cytosine-5)methyltransferase M.SssI shares the specificity of eukaryotic DNA methyltransferases (CG) and is an important model and experimental tool in the study of eukaryotic DNA methylation. Previously, M.SssI was shown to be able to catalyze deamination of the target cytosine to uracil if the methyl donor S-adenosyl-methionine (SAM) was missing from the reaction. To test ...