Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1977 Jul;74(7):2725–2728. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.7.2725

Distribution of 5-methylcytosine in chromatin.

A Razin, H Cedar
PMCID: PMC431263  PMID: 268622

Abstract

The content of 5-methylcytosine in eukaryotic DNA was measured by mass spectrometry. Almost equal amounts of methylated cytosine were found in the DNA of various tissues of the chicken. When chromatin or nuclei were digested with micrococcal nuclease, 50% of the DNA was found to be nuclease resistant. In contrast to this, over 75% of the 5-methylcytosine was protected from nuclease digestion by chromatin proteins. These results suggest that 5-methylcytosine is nonrandomly distributed with respect to the nucleoproteins.

Full text

PDF
2725

Selected References

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

  1. Arber W., Linn S. DNA modification and restriction. Annu Rev Biochem. 1969;38:467–500. doi: 10.1146/annurev.bi.38.070169.002343. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Axel R., Cedar H., Felsenfeld G. Synthesis of globin ribonucleic acid from duck-reticulocyte chromatin in vitro. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1973 Jul;70(7):2029–2032. doi: 10.1073/pnas.70.7.2029. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Axel R., Melchior W., Jr, Sollner-Webb B., Felsenfeld G. Specific sites of interaction between histones and DNA in chromatin. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1974 Oct;71(10):4101–4105. doi: 10.1073/pnas.71.10.4101. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Barrett T., Maryanka D., Hamlyn P. H., Gould H. J. Nonhistone proteins control gene expression in reconstituted chromatin. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1974 Dec;71(12):5057–5061. doi: 10.1073/pnas.71.12.5057. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Billen D. Methylation of the bacterial chromosome: an event at the "replication point"? J Mol Biol. 1968 Feb 14;31(3):477–486. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(68)90422-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Bloch S., Cedar H. Methylation of chromatin DNA. Nucleic Acids Res. 1976 Jun;3(6):1507–1519. doi: 10.1093/nar/3.6.1507. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Clark R. J., Felsenfeld G. Structure of chromatin. Nat New Biol. 1971 Jan 27;229(4):101–106. doi: 10.1038/newbio229101a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Deutsch J., Razin A., Sedat J. Analysis of 5-methylcytosine in DNA. I. Mass spectrometry. Anal Biochem. 1976 May 7;72:586–592. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(76)90570-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Friedman J., Razin A. Studies on the biological role of DNA methylation. II. Role of phiX174 DNA methylation in the process of viral progeny DNA synthesis. Nucleic Acids Res. 1976 Oct;3(10):2665–2675. doi: 10.1093/nar/3.10.2665. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Garel A., Axel R. Selective digestion of transcriptionally active ovalbumin genes from oviduct nuclei. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1976 Nov;73(11):3966–3970. doi: 10.1073/pnas.73.11.3966. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Harbers K., Harbers B., Spencer J. H. Nucleotide clusters in deoxyribonucleic acids. XII. The distribution of 5-methylcytosine in pyrimidine oligonucleotides of mouse L-cell satellite DNA and main band DNA. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1975 Sep 16;66(2):738–746. doi: 10.1016/0006-291x(75)90572-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Hirschman S. Z., Felsenfeld G. Determination of DNA composition and concentration by spectral analysis. J Mol Biol. 1966 Apr;16(2):347–358. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(66)80178-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Kornberg R. D. Chromatin structure: a repeating unit of histones and DNA. Science. 1974 May 24;184(4139):868–871. doi: 10.1126/science.184.4139.868. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Lacy E., Axel R. Analysis of DNA of isolated chromatin subunits. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1975 Oct;72(10):3978–3982. doi: 10.1073/pnas.72.10.3978. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Lark C. Studies on the in vivo methylation of DNA in Escherichia coli 15T. J Mol Biol. 1968 Feb 14;31(3):389–399. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(68)90416-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Lipchitz L., Axel R. Restriction endonuclease cleavage of satellite DNA in intact bovine nuclei. Cell. 1976 Oct;9(2):355–364. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(76)90125-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Miller O. J., Schnedl W., Allen J., Erlanger B. F. 5-Methylcytosine localised in mammalian constitutive heterochromatin. Nature. 1974 Oct 18;251(5476):636–637. doi: 10.1038/251636a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Noll M. Subunit structure of chromatin. Nature. 1974 Sep 20;251(5472):249–251. doi: 10.1038/251249a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Olins A. L., Olins D. E. Spheroid chromatin units (v bodies). Science. 1974 Jan 25;183(4122):330–332. doi: 10.1126/science.183.4122.330. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Pardue M. L., Gall J. G. Chromosomal localization of mouse satellite DNA. Science. 1970 Jun 12;168(3937):1356–1358. doi: 10.1126/science.168.3937.1356. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Paul J., Gilmour R. S., Affara N., Birnie G., Harrison P., Hell A., Humphries S., Windass J., Young B. The globin gene: structure and expression. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 1974;38:885–890. doi: 10.1101/sqb.1974.038.01.090. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Rae P. M., Barnett T. R., Babbitt D. G. Factors influencing the yield of satellite DNA in extractions from Drosophila virilis and Drosophila melanogaster adults and embryos. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1976 May 3;432(2):154–160. doi: 10.1016/0005-2787(76)90157-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Razin A., Goren D., Friedman J. Studies on the biological role of DNA methylation: inhibition of methylation and maturation of the bacteriophage phichi174 by nicotinamide. Nucleic Acids Res. 1975 Oct;2(10):1967–1974. doi: 10.1093/nar/2.10.1967. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. SMITH J. D., STOKER M. G. P. The nucleic acids of Rickettsia burneti. Br J Exp Pathol. 1951 Oct;32(5):433–441. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Salomon R., Kaye A. M., Herzberg M. Mouse nuclear satellite DNA: 5-methylcytosine content, pyrimidine isoplith distribution and electron microscopic appearance. J Mol Biol. 1969 Aug 14;43(3):581–592. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(69)90360-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Vanyushin B. F., Mazin A. L., Vasilyev V. K., Belozersky A. N. The content of 5-methylcytosine in animal DNA: the species and tissue specificity. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1973 Mar 28;299(3):397–403. doi: 10.1016/0005-2787(73)90264-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Vanyushin B. F., Tkacheva S. G., Belozersky A. N. Rare bases in animal DNA. Nature. 1970 Mar 7;225(5236):948–949. doi: 10.1038/225948a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Weintraub H., Groudine M. Chromosomal subunits in active genes have an altered conformation. Science. 1976 Sep 3;193(4256):848–856. doi: 10.1126/science.948749. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Zimmerman S. B., Levin C. J. DNA ligase activity in chromatin and its analogs. Rejoining of DNA strands in polylysine-DNA complexes and in reconstituted chromatins. Biochemistry. 1975 Apr 22;14(8):1671–1677. doi: 10.1021/bi00679a019. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES