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. 2010 Feb 17;132(6):1782-3.
doi: 10.1021/ja910264z.

DNA methylation increases nucleosome compaction and rigidity

John S Choy  1 , Sijie Wei, Ju Yeon Lee, Song Tan, Steven Chu, Tae-Hee Lee
Affiliations

DNA methylation increases nucleosome compaction and rigidity

John S Choy et al. J Am Chem Soc. .

Abstract

Cytosine methylation on CpG dinucleotides is an essential epigenetic modification in eukaryotes. How DNA methylation modulates nucleosome structure and dynamics has been a long-standing question. We implemented a single-molecule method to monitor the effects of DNA methylation on the structure and dynamics of mononucleosomes. Our studies show that DNA methylation induces a more compact and rigid nucleosome structure, providing a physical basis for how DNA methylation might contribute to regulating chromatin structure.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Experimental system to study effects of DNA methylation on nucleosome structure and sample data. (A) Solid circles in blue, green and red indicate the positions of biotin, Cy3 and Cy5, respectively on the DNA. (B) Native polyacrylimide gel analysis of nucleosome. Solid arrow indicates assembled nucleosomes. Dotted arrow indicates DNA. (C) to (F) Sample FRET traces.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Effects of DNA methylation on nucleosome structure. (A) Statistics on the FRET states of nucleosomes. (B) FRET efficiency distributions of the three FRET states. (C) Cy5 fluorescence polarization of the three FRET states.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Summary of CpG methylation effect on nucleosomal structure. Data analysis is included in the Supporting Information.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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