Mammalian DNA methylation is a critical epigenetic mechanism orchestrating gene expression networks in many biological processes. However, investigation of the functions of specific methylation events remains challenging. Here, we demonstrate that fusion of Tet1 or Dnmt3a with a catalytically inactive Cas9 (dCas9) enables targeted DNA methylation editing. Targeting of the dCas9-Tet1 or -Dnmt3a fusion protein to methylated or unmethylated promoter sequences caused activation or silencing, respectively, of an endogenous reporter. Targeted demethylation of the BDNF promoter IV or the MyoD distal enhancer by dCas9-Tet1 induced BDNF expression in post-mitotic neurons or activated MyoD facilitating reprogramming of fibroblasts into myoblasts, respectively. Targeted de novo methylation of a CTCF loop anchor site by dCas9-Dnmt3a blocked CTCF binding and interfered with DNA looping, causing altered gene expression in the neighboring loop. Finally, we show that these tools can edit DNA methylation in mice, demonstrating their wide utility for functional studies of epigenetic regulation.
Pubmed ID: 27662091 RIS Download
Publication data is provided by the National Library of Medicine ® and PubMed ®. Data is retrieved from PubMed ® on a weekly schedule. For terms and conditions see the National Library of Medicine Terms and Conditions.
This monoclonal targets Human Myosin Heavy Chain MAb (Clone MF20)
View all literature mentionsThis polyclonal targets MyoD (C-20)
View all literature mentionsThis monoclonal targets MAP2 (2a+2b)
View all literature mentionsThis polyclonal targets MAP2
View all literature mentionsThis polyclonal targets Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP)
View all literature mentionsSoftware Python package for identifying transcript factor binding sites. Used to evaluate significance of enriched ChIP regions. Improves spatial resolution of binding sites through combining information of both sequencing tag position and orientation. Can be used for ChIP-Seq data alone, or with control sample with increase of specificity.
View all literature mentionsSoftware package as distribution of ImageJ and ImageJ2 together with Java, Java3D and plugins organized into coherent menu structure. Used to assist research in life sciences.
View all literature mentionsOpen source Java based image processing software program designed for scientific multidimensional images. ImageJ has been transformed to ImageJ2 application to improve data engine to be sufficient to analyze modern datasets.
View all literature mentionsMus musculus with name C57BL/6J from IMSR.
View all literature mentions