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. 1991 Apr 11;19(7):1469–1474. doi: 10.1093/nar/19.7.1469

Non-methylated islands in fish genomes are GC-poor.

S Cross 1, P Kovarik 1, J Schmidtke 1, A Bird 1
PMCID: PMC333903  PMID: 2027755

Abstract

In the vertebrate genomes studied to date the 5' end of many genes are associated with distinctive sequences known as CpG islands. CpG islands have three properties: they are non-methylated; the dinucleotide CpG occurs at the frequency predicted by base composition; and they are GC-rich. Unexpectedly we have found that CpG islands in certain fish only have the first two properties; that is, their GC-content is not elevated compared to bulk genomic DNA. Based on this finding, we speculate that the GC-richness of CpG islands in vertebrates other than fish is a passive consequence of a higher mutation rate in regions of open chromatin under conditions where the nucleotide precursor pools are biased.

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Selected References

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