Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 1998 Apr 15;17(8):2426-35.
doi: 10.1093/emboj/17.8.2426.

Initiation of DNA replication at CpG islands in mammalian chromosomes

S Delgado  1 , M Gómez, A Bird, F Antequera
Affiliations

Initiation of DNA replication at CpG islands in mammalian chromosomes

S Delgado et al. EMBO J. .

Abstract

CpG islands are G+C-rich regions approximately 1 kb long that are free of methylation and contain the promoters of many mammalian genes. Analysis of in vivo replication intermediates at three hamster genes and one human gene showed that the CpG island regions, but not their flanks, were present in very short nascent strands, suggesting that they are replication origins (ORIs). CpG island-like fragments were enriched in a population of short nascent strands from human erythroleukaemic cells, suggesting that islands constitute a significant fraction of endogenous ORIs. Correspondingly, bulk CpG islands were found to replicate coordinately early in S phase. Our results imply that CpG islands are initiation sites for both transcription and DNA replication, and may represent genomic footprints of replication initiation.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1982 Jul;79(13):4083-7 - PubMed
    1. J Mol Evol. 1989 Jun;28(6):469-86 - PubMed
    1. Trends Genet. 1992 May;8(5):169-74 - PubMed
    1. Microbiol Rev. 1988 Dec;52(4):568-601 - PubMed
    1. Nature. 1994 Sep 29;371(6496):435-8 - PubMed

Publication types

Substances