Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/2440/101251
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Type: Journal article
Title: Nucleosome dynamics and maintenance of epigenetic states of CpG islands
Author: Sneppen, K.
Dodd, I.
Citation: Physical Review E: Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics, 2016; 93(6):1-8
Publisher: American Physical Society
Issue Date: 2016
ISSN: 1539-3755
1550-2376
Statement of
Responsibility: 
Kim Sneppen, Ian B. Dodd
Abstract: Methylation of mammalian DNA occurs primarily at CG dinucleotides. These CpG sites are located nonrandomly in the genome, tending to occur within high density clusters of CpGs (islands) or within large regions of low CpG density. Cluster methylation tends to be bimodal, being dominantly unmethylated or mostly methylated. For CpG clusters near promoters, low methylation is associated with transcriptional activity, while high methylation is associated with gene silencing. Alternative CpG methylation states are thought to be stable and heritable, conferring localized epigenetic memory that allows transient signals to create long-lived gene expression states. Positive feedback where methylated CpG sites recruit enzymes that methylate nearby CpGs, can produce heritable bistability but does not easily explain that as clusters increase in size or density they change from being primarily methylated to primarily unmethylated. Here, we show that an interaction between the methylation state of a cluster and its occupancy by nucleosomes provides a mechanism to generate these features and explain genome wide systematics of CpG islands.
Keywords: Nucleosomes
Animals
DNA Methylation
Epigenesis, Genetic
CpG Islands
Promoter Regions, Genetic
Description: Published 28 June 2016
Rights: ©2016 American Physical Society
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.93.062417
Grant ID: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1025549
http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1086718
Published version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/physreve.93.062417
Appears in Collections:Aurora harvest 3
Molecular and Biomedical Science publications

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