Aberrantly silenced promoters retain a persistent memory of the silenced state after long-term reactivation

Jon A. Oyer, Phillip A. Yates, Sarah Godsey, Mitchell S. Turker

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A hallmark of aberrant DNA methylation-associated silencing is reversibility. However, long-term stability of reactivated promoters has not been explored. To examine this issue, spontaneous reactivant clones were isolated from mouse embryonal carcinoma cells bearing aberrantly silenced Aprt alleles and re-silencing frequencies were determined as long as three months after reactivation occurred. Despite continuous selection for expression of the reactivated Aprt alleles, exceptionally high spontaneous re-silencing frequencies were observed. A DNA methylation analysis demonstrated retention of sporadic methylation of CpG sites in a protected region of the Aprt promoter in many reactivant alleles suggesting a role for these methylated sites in the re-silencing process. In contrast, a chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) analysis for methyl-H3K4, acetyl-H3K9, and dimethyl-H3K9 levels failed to reveal a specific histone modification that could explain high frequency re-silencing. These results demonstrate that aberrantly silenced and reactivated promoters retain a persistent memory of having undergone the silencing process and suggest the failure to eliminate all CpG methylation as a potential contributing mechanism.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)21-27
Number of pages7
JournalMutation Research - Fundamental and Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis
Volume706
Issue number1-2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 10 2011

Keywords

  • Chromatin
  • DNA methylation
  • Gene reactivation
  • Gene silencing

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Molecular Biology
  • Genetics
  • Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

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