Formula C5H7N3O | ||
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Medical vocabulary what does 5 methylcytosine mean
5-Methylcytosine is a methylated form of the DNA base cytosine that may be involved in the regulation of gene transcription. When cytosine is methylated, the DNA maintains the same sequence, but the expression of methylated genes can be altered (the study of this is part of the field of epigenetics). 5-Methylcytosine is incorporated in the nucleoside 5-methylcytidine.
Contents
In 5-methylcytosine, a methyl group is attached to the 5th atom in the 6-atom ring (counting counterclockwise from the NH nitrogen at the six o'clock position, not the 2 o'clock). This methyl group distinguishes 5-methylcytosine from cytosine.
Discovery
While trying to isolate the bacterial toxin responsible for tuberculosis, W.G. Ruppel isolated a novel nucleic acid named tuberculinic acid in 1898 from Tubercle bacillus. The nucleic acid was found to be unusual, in that it contained in addition to thymine, guanine and cytosine, a methylated nucleotide. In 1925, Johnson and Coghill successfully detected a minor amount of a methylated cytosine derivative as a product of hydrolysis of tuberculinic acid with sulfuric acid. This report was severely criticized because their identification based solely on the optical properties of the crystalline picrate, and other scientists failed to reproduce the same result. But the existence was ultimately proved a fact in 1948, when Hotchkiss separated the nucleic acids of DNA from calf thymus using paper chromatography, by which he detected a unique methylated cytosine, quite distinct from conventional cytosine and uracil. After seven decades, it turned out that it is also a common feature in different RNA molecules, although the precise role is uncertain.
In vivo
5-Methylcytosine is an epigenetic modification formed by the action of DNA methyltransferases.
The function of this chemical varies significantly among species:
While spontaneous deamination of cytosine forms uracil, which is recognized and removed by DNA repair enzymes, deamination of 5-methylcytosine forms thymine. This conversion of a DNA base from cytosine (C) to thymine (T) can result in a transition mutation. In addition, active enzymatic deamination of cytosine or 5-methylcytosine by the APOBEC family of cytosine deaminases could have beneficial implications on various cellular processes as well as on organismal evolution. The implications of deamination on 5-hydroxymethylcytosine, on the other hand, remains less understood.
In vitro
The NH2 group can be removed (deamination) from 5-methylcytosine to form thymine with use of reagents such as nitrous acid; cytosine deaminates to uracil under similar conditions.
5-Methylcytosine is resistant to deamination by bisulfite treatment, which deaminates cytosine residues. This property is often exploited to analyze DNA cytosine methylation patterns with bisulfite sequencing.