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Research Progress on the Methylation in Mammals

YANG Chun1,2, XING Xiu-mei1,2   

  1. 1. Institute of Special Wild Economic Animal and Plant Science,CASS,Jilin 132109,China;
    2. State Key Laboratory of Special Economic Animal Molecular Biology,Jilin 132109,China
  • Received:2012-01-09 Online:2012-08-20 Published:2012-08-24

Abstract: DNA methylation is the common base modification in the eukaryotic genome and is an important epigenetic mechanism. Methylation at the five-carbon of cytosine is a reversible process that can directly influence gene activity and the reaction is catalyzed by a family of DNA methyltransferases(DNMTs). DNA methylation is essential for normal mammals development and plays an important role in the affects a wide range of essential biological processes,and it includes silencing of transposable elements,inactivation of genes,maintenance of chromosomal integrity,X chromosome inactivation,and transcriptional regulation of a large number of genes and so on.

Key words: DNA methylation; DNA methyltransferases; epigenetic; silencing

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