作者
Isabel Cristina Jimenez Useche
发表日期
2013
简介
DNA methylation plays an essential role in various biological processes such as stem cell differentiation, imprinting, X-chromosome inactivation, etc. Increased DNA methylation levels have been associated with chromatin compaction leading to gene silencing. For example, abnormal DNA methylation is associated with silencing of tumor suppressor genes and is observed in the onset of tumorigenesis. There is evidence suggesting that not all methylation events are relevant in chromatin compaction and the initiation of cancer. It seems that methylation at certain locations of the DNA might be key to start chromatin compaction and gene silencing, but the location of this methylation sites is still unknown. In order to identify DNA methylation locations that could potentially be involved in chromatin compaction and gene silencing, this research focused on studying the effects of different DNA methylation patterns in the modulation of chromatin compaction.