Loss of spermatogonia and wide-spread DNA methylation defects in newborn male mice deficient in DNMT3L-5

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Loss of spermatogonia and wide-spread DNA methylation defects in newborn male mice deficient in DNMT3L"</p><p>http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-213X/7/104</p><p>BMC Developmental Biology 2007;7():104-104.</p><p>Published online 18 Sep 2007</p><p>PMCID:PMC2212652.</p><p></p>rcent of DNA methylation of each amplified region is shown for (solid square), (solid triangle) or (open and solid circles) male germ cells; differences in methylation are depicted by blue arrows. DNA methylation differences are illustrated in the context of chromosomes 4 and X ideograms and regional GC content (adapted from the UCSC genome browser). For both chromosomes, most sites examined showed lower levels of DNA methylation in the absence of DNMT3L. Average DNA methylation levels across all sites tested on chromosomes 4 and X. For the 61 sites tested on both chromosomes, the overall DNA methylation level in germ cells decreased by more than 37% (P < 0.001) as compared to and germ cells. Influence of the regional GC content on the changes in DNA methylation status observed in germ cells. The methylation level of a given locus was compared to the regional GC content of 50kb of flanking sequence; the GC content of a region was characterized as being "low" or "high" if it was, respectively, below or above the average GC content of the analyzed chromosome. The number of sites included in the analysis is indicated in the relevant GC content category for each chromosome. For both chromosomes, loci present in lower GC content regions were significantly more demethylated than loci found in areas of higher GC density (Chr4, P = 0.001; ChrX, P = 0.002). Data are presented as mean +/- SEM