Transcriptional repression by methylation: cooperativity between a CpG cluster in the promoter and remote CpG-rich regions

FEBS Letters
M HugK Matsuo

Abstract

Cytosine methylation of binding sites for transcription factors is a straightforward mechanism to prevent transcription, while data on an indirect mechanism, by methylation outside of the factor binding sites, are still scarce. We have studied the latter effect using a model promoter construct. For this, a 69 bp G + C rich DNA segment with a cluster of 14 CpG sites was inserted between upstream lexA sites and the TATA box. Transcription was measured in transient transfection assays with lexA-VP16 as an activating factor. When the entire plasmid was methylated at all CpGs before transfection, transcription was blocked (to 3% residual activity), whereas transcription was only mildly inhibited (to 60%) by methylation of a control plasmid that lacked the 69 bp CpG cluster. However, the effect could not simply be attributed to methylation of the CpG cluster: neither a methylated CpG cluster in an otherwise methylation-free reporter gene plasmid, nor the methylated plasmid with an unmethylated CpG cluster, inhibited transcription considerably (69% and 44% remaining activity, respectively). The data presented here suggest that a minimal length of methylated DNA in the promoter is required for repression, and imply that concomitant met...Continue Reading

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Aug 17, 2000·Springer Seminars in Immunopathology·M J McCluskieH L Davis
Feb 7, 2001·Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism : TEM·J Newell-PriceP King
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