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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Jul 3.
Published in final edited form as: Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 2012 Nov 28;77:161–173. doi: 10.1101/sqb.2012.77.014936

Figure 3.

Figure 3

Active DNA demethylation pathways in plants and animals. Arabidopsis bifunctional DNA glycosylases, such as ROS1 and DME, can directly excise 5-mC and then cleave the DNA backbone at the abasic site, resulting in a gap that is filled with an unmodified cytosine through the BER pathway. In mammals where no ROS1 ortholog has been identified to date, 5-mC can undergo deamination and/or hydroxylation before being excised by DNA mismatch repair glycosylases, which triggers the BER pathway to complete the active demethylation process. See text for details.