Open AccessDistribution of 5-methylcytosine in chromatin.
Author(s) -
Aharon Razin,
Howard Cedar
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011
H-Index - 771
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.74.7.2725
Subject(s) - micrococcal nuclease , chromatin , 5 methylcytosine , dna , nuclease , nucleoprotein , chemistry , cytosine , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry , biology , dna methylation , nucleosome , gene , gene expression
The content of 5-methylcytosine in eukaryotic DNA was measured by mass spectrometry. Almost equal amounts of methylated cytosine were found in the DNA of various tissues of the chicken. When chromatin or nuclei were digested with micrococcal nuclease, 50% of the DNA was found to be nuclease resistant. In contrast to this, over 75% of the 5-methylcytosine was protected from nuclease digestion by chromatin proteins. These results suggest that 5-methylcytosine is nonrandomly distributed with respect to the nucleoproteins.