DNA Methylation and Histone Acetylation

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DNA Methylation and Histone Acetylation

Esteban Ballestar, Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas, Madrid, Spain
Manel Esteller, Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas, Madrid, Spain

Published online: January 2006

DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0006158

Full Article on Wiley Online Library

Abstract
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References

DNA methylation is central to the establishment and heritability of states of expression. Gene silencing that is dependent on DNA methylation involves histone deacetylation. The relevance of the correct maintenance of these modifications patterns is illustrated by cancer, in which alterations in DNA methylation patterns occur.

Keywords: DNA methylation; histone acetylation; epigenetics; hypermethylation; gene repression

References
	Bird A (2001) Methylation talk between histones and DNA. Science 294: 2113–2115.
	Brown CE, Lechner T, Howe L and Workman JL (2000) The many HATs of transcription coactivators. Trends in Biochemical Sciences 25: 15–19.
	Costello JE, Fruhwald MC, Smiraglia DJ, et al. (2000) Aberrant CpG island methylation has non-random and tumour type specific patterns. Nature Genetics 24: 132–138.
	Esteller M (2002) CpG island hypermethylation and tumor suppressor genes: a booming present, a brighter future. Oncogene 21: 5427–5440.
	Esteller M, Corn PG, Baylin SB and Herman JG (2001) A gene hypermethylation profile of human cancer. Cancer Research 61: 3225–3229.
	Robertson KD (2002) DNA methylation and chromatin – unravelling the tangled web. Oncogene 21: 5361–5379.
	Strahl BD and Allis CD (2000) The language of covalent histone modifications. Nature 403: 41–45.
Further Reading
	Ballestar E and Esteller M (2002) The impact of chromatin in human cancer: linking DNA methylation to gene silencing. Carcinogenesis 23: 1103–1109.
	Jones PA and Baylin SB (2002) The fundamental role of epigenetic events in cancer. Nature Reviews Genetics 3: 415–428.
Web Links
	ePath DNA (cytosine-5-)-methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1); LocusID: 1786. LocusLink: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/LocusLink/LocRpt.cgi?l=1786
	ePath DNA (cytosine-5-)-methyltransferase 3 alpha (DNMT3A); LocusID: 1788. LocusLink: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/LocusLink/LocRpt.cgi?l=1788
	ePath DNA (cytosine-5-)-methyltransferase 3 beta (DNMT3B); LocusID: 1789. LocusLink: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/LocusLink/LocRpt.cgi?l=1789
	ePath Histone acetyltransferase 1 (HAT1); LocusID: 8520. LocusLink: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/LocusLink/LocRpt.cgi?l=8520
	ePath Histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1); LocusID: 3065. LocusLink: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/LocusLink/LocRpt.cgi?l=3065
	ePath DNA (cytosine-5-)-methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1); MIM number: 126375. OMIM: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Omim/dispmim?126375
	ePath DNA (cytosine-5-)-methyltransferase 3 alpha (DNMT3A); MIM number: 602769. OMIM: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Omim/dispmim?602769
	ePath DNA (cytosine-5-)-methyltransferase 3 beta (DNMT3B); MIM number: 602900. OMIM: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Omim/dispmim?602900
	ePath Histone acetyltransferase 1 (HAT1); MIM number: 603053. OMIM: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Omim/dispmim?603053
	ePath Histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1); MIM number: 601241. OMIM: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Omim/dispmim?601241

Article Title:	DNA Methylation and Histone Acetylation
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	Figure 1. The coupling between DNA methylation and histone deacetylation. A short array of nucleosomes is shown. Histone octamers are depicted as cylinders, DNA is depicted as the thick line wrapped around the octamers, and histone tails are depicted as protruding thin lines from the octamers. The methyl-CpG binding protein MeCP2 and its partners (mSin3A, RbAp48, HDAC1 and HDAC2) are also shown. Ac: acetyl groups.
	Figure 2. Changes in methylation associated with the transformation of normal cells into cancer cells. Filled boxes indicate gene exons. Methylated and unmethylated CpG dinucleotides are indicated by the filled and open circles respectively.
	Figure 3. Interplay between histone modifications and DNA methylation. Shown is a nucleosome in which the histone octamers are depicted as cylinders, DNA is depicted as a thick line wrapped around the cylinders, and histone tails are depicted as protruding thin lines from the octamers. The tails include histone H3 acetylated on lysine 9 (AcH3K9) and H3 methylated on lysine 9 (MetH3K9). The filled circle indicates DNA methylation.

DNA Methylation and Histone Acetylation

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