Abstract
Methylation of cytosine residues is an almost ubiquitous finding of higher organisms (1). The majority of this methylation occurs at the dinucleotide CpG (where p denotes a phosphate group) (2). CpG sites are distributed throughout the genome with clusters of the sequence being found in the 5′ promoter region of housekeeping genes, in groups known as CpG islands. These short stretches of DNA have a have a C and G base composition, which in mammals and avians is estimated to be 10 times higher than in bulk DNA (3)
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bestor, T. H. (1990) DNA methylation: evolution of a bacterial immuno function into a regulator of gene expression and genome structure in higher eukaryotes. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 326x326, 179–187.
Gruenbaum, Y., Stein, R., Cedar, H., and Razin, A. (1981) Methylation of CpG sequences in eukaryotic DNA. FEBS Lett. 124, 67–71.
Bird, A. P. (1986) CpG rich islands and the functions of DNA methylation. Nature 321, 209–213.
Riggs, A. D. and Pfeifer, G. P. (1992) X chromosome inactivation and cell memory. Trends Genet. 8, 169–174.
Brandeis, M., Frank, D., Keshet, I., Seigfried, Z., Mendelsohn, M., Nemes, A., et al. (1994) Sp1 elements protect a CpG island from de novo methylation. Nature 371, 435–438.
Stein, R., Sciaky-Gallili, N, Razin, A., and Cedar, H. (1982) Pattern of methylation of two genes coding for housekeeping gene functions. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 79, 2422–2426.
Issa, J.-P. J., Vertino, P. M., Wu, J., Sazawal, S., Celano, P., Nelkin, B. D., et al. (1993) Increased cytosine DNA-methyltransferase activity during colon cancer progression. J. Natl. Canc. Inst. 85, 1235–1240.
Melki, J. R., Warnecke, P., Vincent, P. C., and Clark, S. J. (1998) Increased DNA methyltransferase expression in leukaemia. Leukaemia 12, 311–316.
Herman, J. G., Jen, J., Merlo, A., and Baylin, S. B. (1996) Hypermethylation-associated inactivation indicates a tumour supressor role for p15INK4B. Cancer Res. 56, 722–727.
Huang, T. H. M., Laux, D. E., Hamlin, B. C., Tran, P., Tran, H., and Lubahn, D. B. (1997) Identification of DNA methylation markers for human breast carcinomas using the methylation-sensitive restriction fingerprint technique. Cancer Res 57, 1030–1034.
Southern, E. M. (1975) Detection of specific sequences among DNA fragments separated by gel electrophoresis. J. Mol. Biol. 98, 503–506.
Zeng, M., Martsen, E. O., and Lapeyre, J. N. (1998) Re-amplification of short primer-generated bands from RAPD and methylation-sensitive restriction fingerprinting by discrimination primers.Biotechniques 24, 402–403.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2002 Humana Press Inc.
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Davies, C.S. (2002). Methylation-Sensitive Restriction Fingerprinting. In: Mills, K.I., Ramsahoye, B.H. (eds) DNA Methylation Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology™, vol 200. Springer, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-182-5:043
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-182-5:043
Publisher Name: Springer, Totowa, NJ
Print ISBN: 978-0-89603-618-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-182-4
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols