Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Nucleic Acids Research logoLink to Nucleic Acids Research
. 1984 Jul 25;12(14):5869–5877. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.14.5869

Increased G + C content of DNA stabilizes methyl CpG dinucleotides.

R L Adams, R Eason
PMCID: PMC320037  PMID: 6462920

Abstract

The vertebrate genome is a mosaic of regions differing dramatically in their G + C content. Those regions with a high G + C content contain the expected number of CpG dinucleotides and we propose that following methylation these have been protected from deamination by the increased stability of the surrounding DNA duplex. This argument applies both to the microenvironment of the CpG dinucleotide and to whole gene regions.

Full text

PDF
5869

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bird A. P. DNA methylation and the frequency of CpG in animal DNA. Nucleic Acids Res. 1980 Apr 11;8(7):1499–1504. doi: 10.1093/nar/8.7.1499. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Cooper D. N., Taggart M. H., Bird A. P. Unmethylated domains in vertebrate DNA. Nucleic Acids Res. 1983 Feb 11;11(3):647–658. doi: 10.1093/nar/11.3.647. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Coulondre C., Miller J. H., Farabaugh P. J., Gilbert W. Molecular basis of base substitution hotspots in Escherichia coli. Nature. 1978 Aug 24;274(5673):775–780. doi: 10.1038/274775a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. DOSKOCIL J., SORM F. Distribution of 5-methylcytosine in pyrimidine sequences of deoxyribonucleic acids. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1962 Jun 11;55:953–959. doi: 10.1016/0006-3002(62)90909-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Gates F. T., 3rd, Linn S. Endonuclease V of Escherichia coli. J Biol Chem. 1977 Mar 10;252(5):1647–1653. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Goddard J. P., Schulman L. H. Conversion of exposed cytidine residues to uridine residues in Escherichia coli formylmethionine transfer ribonucleic acid. J Biol Chem. 1972 Jun 25;247(12):3864–3867. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Lukashin A. V., Vologodskii A. V., Frank-Kamenetskii M. D., Lyubchenko Y. L. Fluctuational opening of the double helix as revealed by theoretical and experimental study of DNA interaction with formaldehyde. J Mol Biol. 1976 Dec 25;108(4):665–682. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(76)80111-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. McClelland M., Ivarie R. Asymmetrical distribution of CpG in an 'average' mammalian gene. Nucleic Acids Res. 1982 Dec 11;10(23):7865–7877. doi: 10.1093/nar/10.23.7865. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Russell G. J., Walker P. M., Elton R. A., Subak-Sharpe J. H. Doublet frequency analysis of fractionated vertebrate nuclear DNA. J Mol Biol. 1976 Nov;108(1):1–23. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(76)80090-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. SINSHEIMER R. L. The action of pancreatic deoxyribonuclease. II. Isomeric dinucleotides. J Biol Chem. 1955 Aug;215(2):579–583. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Salser W. Globin mRNA sequences: analysis of base pairing and evolutionary implications. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 1978;42(Pt 2):985–1002. doi: 10.1101/sqb.1978.042.01.099. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Shapiro R., Braverman B., Louis J. B., Servis R. E. Nucleic acid reactivity and conformation. II. Reaction of cytosine and uracil with sodium bisulfite. J Biol Chem. 1973 Jun 10;248(11):4060–4064. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Smith T. F., Waterman M. S., Sadler J. R. Statistical characterization of nucleic acid sequence functional domains. Nucleic Acids Res. 1983 Apr 11;11(7):2205–2220. doi: 10.1093/nar/11.7.2205. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Nucleic Acids Research are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES