Figure 2.

Analysis of Rett syndrome mutations of MeCP2 on its affinity for methylated DNA. MeCP2 proteins with Rett syndrome mutations were analyzed for their binding to methylated or unmethylated oligonucleotide probes by southwestern analysis. (A) Binding to methylated GAM12 probes was lost when missense or nonsense mutations were in the MBD. Missense mutations outside the MBD did not affect binding, and binding for nonsense mutations outside the MBD occurred and increased with increase in protein size. (B) Non-specific binding to unmethylated GAC12 probes was apparent for all proteins except for two nonsense mutations that resulted in the smallest MeCP2 proteins (138X and 168X). (C) Western blotting of membranes following southwestern with anti-MeCP2 antibodies shows equal amounts of proteins.