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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Sep 1.
Published in final edited form as: Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2016 Jun 18;68:474–488. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.06.010

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Catalysis of DNA methylation and hydroxylation. A) Cytosine at CpG dinucleotides can be methylated at carbon-5 by DNMTs, which use SAM as methyl-carrier, generating a modified nucleotide called 5-methylcytosine (5mC). B) Possibly as first step of an active demethylation process, 5mC can be oxidized by TET enzymes to 5-hydroxymethylcytosines (5hmC), whose exact function is still unknown. DNMT – DNA methyltransferase; TET – ten-eleven translocation.